The Highlands Current on July 10 won 16 awards from the National Newspaper Association and two from the Society for Features Journalism for work published in 2022.
The Current was among 92 newspapers in 33 states to win awards from the National Newspaper Association. The paper has won 109 NNA awards since 2016.
Among papers of all sizes, Chip Rowe and Leonard Sparks, along with designer Pierce Strudler, won first place for community service for the Black history series, Always Present, Never Seen. The staff also won second place for headline writing and Ross Corsair took second place in video journalism for “Chakra’s Garden,” about Chanthou “Chakra” Oeur, a native of Cambodia who lives in Philipstown.
In the advertising division, Strudler won first place for best use of color for a pie-baking contest ad.
Among smaller papers, The Current won first-place awards for local news coverage and special section and feature series, the latter two for Always Present, Never Seen. Joey Asher won third place in sports features for The Future of Football.
Among weekly papers, The Current won first place for in-depth series for Always Present, Never Seen (Brian PJ Cronin’s Trails [Too] Well Traveled received an honorable mention) and first place for education coverage for Jeff Simms’ Are the Kids Alright? The paper also won second place for general excellence and feature profile, for Michael Turton’s story about the indestructible Jay Brennan.
Among weeklies, Strudler won third place for front-page design and Simms won third place for reporting on local government for “Beacon’s Paper Streets.” Ross Corsair received honorable mention for a feature photo.
In the Society for Features Journalism contest, The Current won second place among papers with circulations of less than 90,000 in the inclusion and representation in features category for Always Present, Never Seen. In the feature series category, Cronin received an honorable mention for The Challenge for Churches.