Independent gets 24 awards, third place in General Excellence

The North Dakota Newspaper Association (NDNA) released the names of the placers in their annual Better Newspaper Contest Friday, May 6, held in conjunction with the organization's 136th annual convention.

For work published during the calendar year of 2021, the Foster County Independent was the recipient of 24 total awards.

The Independent earn-ed the Third Place award in the General Excellence category for Mid-size Weeklies, encompassing circulation from 1,001 to 1,999 subscribers. In the same category, the New Rockford Transcript took second place and the Tioga Tribune was the overall winner.

Independent employees took first place in six categories.

Individually, Leasa Lura's ad for Central City Lumber was tops in the Home/Gardening Ad Category. Erik Gjovik won first place honors in Spot News Photo (Fire destroys barn at Bordulac farm), Pictorial Photo (Legends of the Fall) and Agricultural Photo (LegenDairy IV).

The staff teamed up for first place in Special News Section (2021-22 Winter Sports Preview) for Gjovik and Lane Moellenkamp, and Gjovik and Linda Duursma also won in the Signature Page category (Good Luck CHS Basketball Teams).

Second places went to Lura for Vehicle Ad (Carrington Roundup), Gjovik, Lura and Duursma for Special Ad Section (Foster County 4-H Appreciation Days), and Allen Stock's entries in Personal Column/Humorous (What do they do with those yellow plants?) and Editorial (At what price do we take care of ourselves?)

Gjovik also took second place in Feature Reporting Series (Twin City), Spot News Reporting (Fire destroys barn at Bordulac farm), Sports Page/Section and Sports Reporting Series (CHS girls' basketball postseason).

Third place went to Stock for Sports Column (Once more, hard work does the job) and Stock and Lori Buchholtz for Editorial Page. In addition, Gjovik had third places in Headline (Why not Minot?) and Sports Photo (Pushed over).

Honorable Mentions were earned by Gjovik for Single Ad (LRSC Battle Royale) and News Photo (Vaccinations begin), and Lura for Health Care Ad (Walk-in Immunizations). Stock was also honored with a placing for Personal Column/Serious (Some photos lost in flooded basement).

General Excellence- placing papers in the four other circulation divisions were as follows:

Small Weeklies: 1st - Steele County Press, Finley; 2nd - Valley News & Views, Drayton; 3rd - Burke County Tribune, Bowbells; Hon. Mention - Mandan News.

Large Weeklies: 1st - Walsh County Record, Grafton; 2nd - Cass County Reporter, Casselton; 3rd - McLean County Independent, Garrison; Honorable Mention - Ransom County Gazette, Lisbon.

Small Dailies: 1st - The Dickinson Press; 2nd - The Jamestown Sun; 3rd - The Daily News, Wahpeton.

Large Dailies: 1st - The Bismarck Tribune; 2nd - The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead; 3rd - Grand Forks Herald.

Foster County Independent Publisher Amy Wobbema was elected president of NDNA for the coming year at the Saturday annual meeting, and will serve in that capacity for one year. Next year's convention is slated to be jointly conducted with the South Dakota Newspaper Association, and held in Devils Lake May 11-13, 2023.