R-E wins five Minnesota Newspaper Association awards

The Red Wing Republican Eagle received two first-place Minnesota Newspaper Association Better Newspaper Contest awards for work done from October 2011 through September 2012. R-E staff also took home two second-place awards and a third-place at MNA’s annual convention.

Chris Harrell’s “An uncommon bond: Strusz serves as a role model for one Red Wing sixth-grader,” (published June 2) won the top prize for a sports story among weekly newspapers with circulation over 5,000.

“Not every award-winning sports story is about game,” the judges wrote. “This very well-crafted story relates the special bond between a child who likely never will experience cheers from the sidelines and an athlete who seems to prefer the difference he can make in her life to the attention of an adoring crowd. Chris Harrell did a remarkable job in telling this touching story in a first-class way.”

Regan Carstensen, Don Davis, Sarah Gorvin, Anne Jacobson and Danielle Killey received first place for breaking news coverage with “Iraq War vet ID’d as shooter,” (published Dec. 21, 2011) and subsequent articles about the shooting of Lake City police officer Shawn Schneider.

“The winning entry gave us the official story, the residents, the school lockdown story and the veterans’ reaction story,” the reviewer said.

The R-E earned a second-place award for typography and design “for strong use of photos on the inside pages …, great local photos and nice treatment of the sky boxes.”

Another second-place award was given to the R-E for best use of video. “The reporter did a great job of turning a drill into something quite interesting,” the judges said. “This video depicts some of what our emergency personnel deal with in real life when faced with mass injuries and casualties.”

The third-place award was for general sports reporting.

All awards were presented at a ceremony Jan. 24 in Bloomington, Minn.

Tags: red wing, business, minnesota