Havre Daily takes 26 awards at newspaper convention

Havre Daily News Staff

The Havre Daily News received top awards in the Better Newspaper Contest at the Montana Newspaper Association annual meeting in Big Sky over the weekend, including sweeping the top three awards in two categories and taking first and second in several others.

"This was another great year for the Havre Daily News," Havre Daily Publisher Stacy Mantle said. "I am so proud of what the staff has accomplished over the last year and am just amazed at how talented our entire group is. The next few years should prove to be even stronger for these hard-working individuals."

The newspaper association held its award banquet Saturday night, presenting awards in a number of categories that are broken into classes by the size of newspaper.

The Havre Daily is in a category of weeklies or dailies with circulation of 4,500 or more copies, competing against papers like Flathead Beacon, Livingtson Enterprise and Valley Journal.

Photographer Colin Thompson swept the top three spots in HDN's division in sports photography, with his photo published Feb 12, 2018, of Tyler Schaub at state wrestling taking first; July 9, 2018's "Bear Paw Roundup" taking second, and "Havre Wins" from Dec. 26, 2018 taking third.

Thompson also took third place in feature photo for "Spinning the stars over Bear Paw Lake" Dec. 5, 2018, and third in best portrait photo for Feb. 21, 2018's "Tall Tale" about Montana State University-Northern basketball player Ryan Reeves.

Havre also swept sponsor page, with ad director Jenn Thompson taking first for "Back to School ABC," Thompson and Mantle taking second for "Congratulations Lady Bears" and Thompson taking third for "Shop Hometown."

Havre raked in awards in advertising, with Mantle taking first in Best Ad to Sell or Promote Merchandise black & white for a Havre Optometric ad and Thompson taking first in Best Ad to Sell or Promote Services black & white for "Taste of Jazz" and second in that category for a Northern Winz Casino ad.

Mantle took first for Best Use of Local Photography in an Ad for a Valley Furniture ad and second in that category with a Bear Paw Roundup ad, and third place in Best Marketing Campaign for Havre Optometric ads.

Havre Daily took first and second in Best Video with Blue Ponies Class A State Championship and Montana 2018 Class C State Championship, respectively.

Havre took second for best website and also in best niche publication, for Havre Business Card Directory 2018.

Havre Daily's editorial board took first place in best editorial for "Our View: People need to stop the nickel-and-diming to death Amtrak."

George Ferguson took first in Best Headline Writing for his sports page headlines, "Horns Hook Tornadoes," "This Tornado Warning was Coming" and  "A Buck Wild Friday Night."

Ferguson also took a second place, for Best Sports and Outdoors Column Writing, with "Hauck plus Choate brings new fuel to the Cat-Griz fire."

Pam Burke took second in Best Column Writing for her View from the North 40 entry, "Goodbye Brock Creek Road, farewell Garrison Junction," and Tim Leeds took third in Best News Story for "Tempel and Tuss on modern politics."

Havre Daily page designer Stephen Borlaug also took multiple awards for his Hi-Line Living pages, earning a first in Best Page Layout and Design"Goodbye Hi-Line" from June 15, 2018, and a third in that category for "A Day at the Park" May 25, 2018.

Stacy Mantle took first and second in Best Sports Page Layout and Design for the Feb. 21, 2018, layout of "Tall Tale" and for "This Team. This Moment," March 7, 2018.