SALEM, Ohio — Farm and Dairy reporters and digital media staff won several awards this year through the National Newspaper Association, and the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists.
Reporter Chris Kick, of Wooster, won first place in the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists’ “Best Trade Report” category, for a story on immigrant labor, called Food on the Brink: Two sides to every border.
The same story took first place in the online category of “Best Business/Tech Story,” with layout and design by Farm and Dairy’s Digital Systems Manager Jordan Roberts, of Salem.
Kick also took third place in the National Newspaper Association’s Better Newspaper Contest, for the same story on immigration.
Ferdinand Brader
Former reporter Brian Lisik took first in the Ohio SPJ online contest, in the category “Best Arts/Entertainment,” for a story on the artist Ferdinand Brader, called Finding Ferdinand Brader.
Farm and Dairy’s online content producer, Katie Woods, of Columbiana, Ohio, assisted with web layout and design of the Brader story.
Lisik also took a second place in the NNA “Best Health Story” category, for Winning farmers’ hearing loss battle, a story about hearing loss and safety issues. And he took honorable mention for Farm hops into growing cricket food market, a story about producing crickets for food.
Farm and Dairy Editor Susan Crowell, of Lisbon, Ohio, took second in the NNA contest’s “Best Agricultural Story” category, for a story on drones in agriculture, called Drone gives clearer picture of crop scouting.
Crowell also took second place in the Ohio SPJ contest, for “Best of Show Columnist,” For a collection of columns she wrote.
Group award
The paper also took second place in the NNA “Best Feature Series,” for a series called Our Farm Roots, featuring various bicentennial farms across Ohio.
The series -— written by Kristy Foster, Kick, Lisik, Crowell, and designed by copy editor Aimee Tenzek — was part of the paper’s centennial anniversary celebration in 2014.
The judges described the series as a “fantastic topic, with many avenues for development. Stories are well-written, with a clear connection to the community.”
About the contests
In the Ohio SPJ contest, 268 awards were chosen from 611 entries. The contest was presented by the Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists.
In the NNA contest, entries came from 36 states, totaling 1,696 entries. A total of 521 awards were presented, at the National Newspaper Association conference.
