BANGOR – The Bangor Daily News earned top honors in four categories in the New England Associated Press News Executives Association contest, according to Editor-in-Chief Michael J. Dowd. The awards will be presented Sept. 10 at NEAPNEA’s fall conference at the Radisson Hotel & Suites in Chelmsford, Mass.
Honored with first-place selections were BDN photographers Kevin Bennett and Gabor Degre, sportswriters Ernie Clark and Andrew Neff, and former Lifestyle reporter Jessica Bloch.
Bennett took first place in the General News photography category for his memorable shot of a homeless woman in Bangor sitting on a log in a wooded area of the city. Degre won in the Portrait or Profile photo category for his image of an 88-year-old Brewer man flying a model airplane he built.
Clark and Neff won in the Sports Feature writing category for their combined coverage of the 50th anniversary of the New York Giants and Green Bay Packers playing an NFL exhibition game in Bangor in 1959.
Bloch won in the Arts and Entertainment writing category for her feature on artist Phil Schirmer of Blue Hill, a longtime proponent of the rarely used painting medium of egg tempera.
The Bangor Daily News also took one second-place award and five third-place honors.
Taking second in the Photo Story category was BDN photographer Bridget Brown, honored for her images of whales off the coast of Maine.
Third-place awards went to reporter Emily Burnham in the Business and Consumer News writing category for her two-part series looking at the revival of downtown Bangor; reporters Abigail Curtis, Bill Trotter and Judy Harrison in the Continuing Coverage writing category for their coverage of a shooting involving lobstermen on Matinicus Island; Ernie Clark for his Sports Feature on Carlos Baeza, manager of the Camden Hills Regional High School boys basketball team; and graphics director Eric Zelz and page designer Becky Bowden in the Page 1 Design category for their work with text and images detailing an old plane wreck on a mountain in Baxter State Park.
The Bangor Daily News website was named third-best in New England, behind first-place winner The Cape Cod Times and second-place honoree The Portland Press Herald.
