HOT PURSUIT
Since 2011, the Steele County Times has won a variety of national journalism awards of excellence, but none has ever rivaled what we came away with this past weekend in California.
On Saturday, I had the distinct honor of accepting the first place General Excellence award at the National Newspaper Convention in San Francisco. Simply put, the Times was named one of the best newspapers in the entire country. We competed with other weekly newspapers who have similar circulation. In the journalism circles, General Excellence is considered to be the benchmark of a high quality newspaper in which the entire newspaper is considered and not just one aspect of it.
General Excellence takes into account writing, photography, overall news and sports coverage, headlines, advertising and lay out and design. One of my favorite comments made by the judges was “stunning community news.”
As exciting as this honor has been for us, one thing was missing from earning the top award. I know former editor Deb Flemming, who died in March, would be exceptionally proud of our achievement. Before she passed away, Deb often commented how she hoped we would win the General Excellence award. We actually did in January on the state level, and Deb was part of accepting that honor. Sadly, she died less than two months after receiving that award and before the national competition took place. But I know she’s looking down and smiling at the success we’ve achieved.
It’s humbling to be recognized for the work we do every week in keeping our readers informed with local community news. I am fortunate to have a staff committed to working tirelessly in covering the news and providing advertising opportunities for businesses, organizations and events.
This honor is a true team effort. No one person can pull off achieving such status for the newspaper. I am lucky to have the best staff right now that I’ve ever had over the past 13 years. Our news and production team has more than 200 years of combined newspaper experience. We have become a trusted source of news and information.
There are no less than 14 staff members who work to put out the newspaper each and every week. They all have a hand in capturing this award. Something of this caliber doesn’t come easy. It takes lots of dedication and hard work.
Beyond our staff, I also believe our readers and advertisers are responsible for helping us earn such a high honor. Without readers who are passionate about wanting local news and advertisers helping to support the news gathering effort, none of this would be possible. After all, this is a community newspaper and our staff is only here to make sure we put out a quality product that readers will be proud of reading every week.
I can’t thank our readers enough for helping support the weekly mission of providing the highest quality newspaper possible.
I believe awards are only a small measure of success. Perhaps even greater, I relish the favorable comments we receive every week from our readers about what they like about this newspaper. We constantly hear great things and more than anything that feedback fuels our energy and excitement for doing what we do best.
Don’t ever get misled into believing that newspapers are dying. Quite the opposite is true, at least with papers such as ours. We are thriving and you’re helping carry that momentum forward in leading us to heights we could have never imagined achieving.
Enough of the limelight. It’s time to get down to business and go in hot pursuit of putting out yet another edition of one of the nation’s finest newspapers.