While this newspaper doesn’t always hear what our readers think of our articles, we have always been well received by our industry peers. In 11 of the 12 years that we’ve been a member of the NY State Press Association we have been winners in their Better Newspaper Contest.
A personal highlight was the year that I was called up to accept a Second Place award in the Feature Story category for Noah Phillip’s piece on Tony Piraquive , the original owner of the Red Hook Coffee Shop, before he retired. As I was heading back to my seat, the presenter told me not to, as we also were also the First-Place winner, for a piece by Sarah Matusek about Jeannette Walls, author of The Glass Castle, whose writing career began as a reporter for another downtown Brooklyn community paper.
In 2017 we won the Ippies Award, given out by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, for having the “Best Community Publication in New York.” That may have shocked them so much that they stopped having the contest shortly afterwards!
Last year we joined the National Newspaper Association, composed of papers like ours from all over the country. In that first year, we were awarded two prizes for journalism, and we just found out that we won three in this year’s contest!
For Best Health Story we were awarded First Place for Brian Abate’s Asthma Series. The judge wrote: Fantastic! This is such a well researched article on a topic that seems to have been that talk of the community at the time. Not only offering information on the different causes of asthma in the community but also offering solutions to help those who have it. Incredible job!
We received a Second Place in Feature Story for Erin DeGregorio’s story about the Museum of Failure which exhibited in Sunset Park last year. The judge wrote: This was quite nicely done — kudos.
Another Second Place was for another Brian Abate story: The Royal Scam. This was in the category of Best Business Story, and he wrote about the sad saga of what some people think of as a beloved ice cream shop, but what in reality was a badly run but highly promoted business that escaped paying creditors by declaring bankruptcy two times. The judge wrote: Great story and great subject matter. Would have liked to hear from an employee or two about their thoughts on the extended two-week furlough. Love how the story is broken up with subheads, makes for a visually appealing read. Great job.
Earlier this year we received an award from the New York Press Association – Second Place for Best Obituaries. One of our submissions, written by Nathan Weiser, was about the life and remembrance of community member Jackie Jackson. The other was a heartfelt remembrance called “Farewell Brother” written by acclaimed author and our Insights Editor Joe Enright.
The Star-Revue will be accepting their NNA awards in person next month at a convention in Omaha, Nebraska and we appreciate the honor.
Author
George Fiala has worked in radio, newspapers and direct marketing his whole life, except for when he was a vendor at Shea Stadium, pizza and cheesesteak maker in Lancaster, PA, and an occasional comic book dealer. He studied English and drinking in college, international relations at the New School, and in his spare time plays drums and fixes pinball machines.
One Comment
Well earned! I always say, “this is the greatest neighborhood in the world” and the Red Hook Red Star Revue is definitely one of things makes this neighborhood so great. I’m not sure if everyone understands how lucky we are to still even have a local neighborhood newspaper. At a time when most local papers have gone out of business, not only have you been able to survive but you’ve thrived and consistently put out a quality paper with real reporting, month after month, and for FREE, that’s just amazing. Congratulations to you, Brian, Nathan and the rest of the staff, you guys deserve all the accolades that you get, and then some!