Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

RALEIGH – The Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald continues to be recognized by its peers for quality journalism.

The North Carolina Press Association (NCPA) held its 151^st annual convention on Thursday/Friday (Sept. 19-20) at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Raleigh. There, winners were announced of the 2023-24 Advertising and Editorial Contest.

The News-Herald earned three news awards.

Editor Cal Bryant received a second place award in the category of Beat News Reporting with his story on the swearing in of Michele Garrett, Ahoskie’s first-ever female police chief.

Staff Writer Holly Taylor was recognized for her Serious Columns, a category which saw her earn a third place award.

The News-Herald staff received a second place award for Headline Writing.

Only three winners are named in each category within each newspaper division. The News-Herald competes in Division B (non-daily publications with a circulation of less than 10,000 per week).

The Colorado Press Association members judged North Carolina’s contest this year.

NCPA’s advertising and editorial contest is one of the largest in the nation with over 3,750 entries submitted by more than 125 newspapers and news organizations.

News-Herald staff writers are routinely recognized for their work by the NCPA.

For 2022-23, Taylor’s entries in the Serious Columns category were judged as the first-place winner. Judges also honored the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald with a pair of second place Staff Awards for Best Special Section (Crossroads – 2023) and Headline Writing. The News-Herald also earned a third place award for Outstanding Community Coverage.

At the 2021-22 contest NCPA Convention, Bryant received three awards: first place in the category of City/County Government Reporting; second place for General News Photography; and third place for Editorials.

In 2020-21, Taylor captured two awards: second place for Serious Columns, and third place for General News Photography. That same year, Bryant won first place in the category of Headline Writing.

In 2018-19, Taylor won her first-ever NCPA award with a three-part series on Human Trafficking. That second place award was in the News Enterprise Reporting category. Bryant was also recognized by the NCPA in the category of General News Reporting and Headline Writing. Both of those were second place awards.

Former News-Herald staffer Gene Motley was a second place winner in Serious Columns for 2018-19. He placed first in that same category one year earlier. Motley also won second place in 2018-19 for Sports News Reporting.

One year earlier, Motley earned the highest honor in the category of City/County Government Reporting with his three-part series on the financial difficulties experienced in 2017 by the Bertie County Public School system, and its plan to fix those problems.

In 2016, the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald’s news and ad staff combined to earn 11 awards, the highest total ever won by this newspaper in a single year. Four of those winning entries were judged in first place.

In 2012, the news staff was judged in first place in the Community Coverage category. Four years prior, the staff earned second place in the Special Sections category for “OLF, Looking for a Place to Land”, a 12-page tab devoted entirely to the plans being developed at that time by the U.S. Navy to construct a highly controversial Outlying Landing Field (practice facility) at one of five sites in northeastern North Carolina and southside Virginia.

In 2007, the NCPA awarded its Best Special Section to the News-Herald’s “Crossroads – 2006.”

Over a stretch of 10 years prior to that, the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald earned eight News, Editorial & Photojournalist Contest awards from the NCPA. Exactly one-half of those honors were judged as first-place entries.