Havre Daily wins awards at newspaper association meeting

The Havre Daily News brought back multiple awards from the Montana Newspapers Association annual meeting in Billings over the weekend for its work in 2017.

“I’m very proud of the work we have done in the last 12 months” said Havre Daily News publisher Stacy Mantle. “It has been a team effort. It takes advertising, editorial, circulation and production as well as news to make a good newspaper.”

One of the first-place awards in the Havre Daily division, for weekly or daily papers that publish fewer than six days a week with a circulation of 4,500 or more papers, went to photographer Colin Thompson, who won first place in Best News Photo, for his photograph of a lightning storm that published June 9, 2017.

Melody Roberts won second place in that category for her photograph of the East Fork Fire in the Bear Paw Mountains that published Aug. 31.

Havre Daily News sports editor George Ferguson won two awards in Best Sports Page Layout and Design, with a third-place finish and taking first for his design for “The Career” about Montana State University-Northern basketball standout Natalee Faupel.

The Havre Daily also won an award for its advertisement thanking the community and all involved in fighting the East Fork Fire, with Mantle, Pam Buke and Peggy Ray taking first place in Best Newspaper Promotional Ad for the advertisement that ran Sept. 8.

Mantle closed out the Best Sponsor Page category, taking first for a “good luck at divisionals” page for Havre High School golf that ran Sept. 20, as well as taking second and third place in the category.

The Havre Daily took first place for its “Our View” entries in the Best Editorial category.

Ferguson also won awards for Best Sports and Outdoors Column Writing, taking second and third place.

Stacy Mantle, Pam Burke and Peggy Ray took second in Best Use of Local Photography in an Ad, while Mantle also took third in that category.

Havre Daily News staff took second in Best Ad to Sell or Promote Advertising; Stacy Mantle took third in Best Ad to Sell or Promote Services; and the Havre Daily News staff took third for Best Website.

At the meeting, Darla Downs of Wolf Point’s Herald-New was honored with the 2018 Master Editor/Publisher Award for her significant contributions to the Montana newspaper industry and the Montana Newspaper Association.

William Richard “Dick” Crockford II, Dillon Tribune, and Edward A. Coyle, Missoulian, were inducted into the Montana Newspaper Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame was established by the Montana Newspaper Association and the University of Montana School of Journalism, and honors Montana journalists who have made outstanding contributions to the profession, the arts, and their community.

Donald Lee La Baugh, Choteau Acantha and Bill Vander Weele, Sidney Herald were honored with the 2018 Distinguished Service Award for their contributions to the Montana newspaper profession and to their community.