The Osceola News-Gazette brought home nine awards from last weekend’s Florida Press Association Weekly Newspaper Contest Awards at the association’s annual banquet in Ponte Vedra Beach.
Reporter Charlie Reed earned a first place award in Local Government Reporting for a series of stories on Osceola County’s NeoCity sensor manufacturing development, and Production Manager and Layout Editor Angelique Priore earned firstst place for Front Page Makeup, among weekly and bi-weekly papers statewide with a circulation of 15,000 or more.
As a staff, the News-Gazette earned third place in the General Excellence category, an overview of the entire paper over a series of issues, and second place for its website, AroundOsceola.com. Reed also collaborated on a story that earned third place for Breaking News. In June 2021, a man had made threats against at least one public official, and barricaded himself in a Kissimmee home — then called the News-Gazette office to say he was an Iraq veteran and that he had been maligned by the justice system and the Ninth Circuit Court.
Editor Ken Jackson received a second-place award in Online Breaking News, for real-time coverage of the Nicole Montalvo murder trial sentencing, and third place for Education Reporting detailing the School District’s August temporary mask mandate.
Sports freelancer J. Daniel Pearson won third place in Sports Column — an open category across all three circulation categories — for a piece about Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden in his al days last summer. Former News-Gazette Editor Brian McBride also won third place in Spot News Photo for a picture of a panhandler making his way through traffic lanes.
“It’s an honor not only for me as the owner but for our team as well to be recognized amongst our peers from all over the state of Florida. We strive daily to bring the most relevant news to our readers and being acknowledged like this is very gratifying,” News-Gazette Publisher Rochelle Stidham said. “We want to thank all of our readers and advertisers for their continued support”.
