NATICK, Mass. – Providence Business News was named New England Newspaper of the Year for specialty publications by the New England Newspaper & Press Association at the organization’s 2014 Fall Conference Thursday.
It was the second consecutive year in which PBN was named Newspaper of the Year, a competition that uses experts and readers to evaluate newspapers’ quality of writing and reporting, use of photos, design and presentation, online offerings, and overall utility and value, as judged in different circulation categories. PBN was named Newspaper of the Year in 2013 as well as a “Distinguished Newspaper,” an honorable mention in the Newspaper of the Year program, in 2010 and 2012.
PBN has garnered consistent organizational honors from NENPA, including being named among the top three newspapers for general excellence in its winter New England Better Newspaper Competition in five of the last six years, coming in first in 2009.
Also being named Newspaper of the Year at the 2014 fall conference was:
- The North East Independent, of North Kingstown, for weekly community newspapers with circulation of less than 3,000
Receiving Distinguished Newspaper awards at the conference in multiple categories were:
- The Taunton Daily Gazette, daily newspaper with circulation of less than 10,000
- The Sun Chronicle, of Attleboro, daily newspaper with circulation of 10,000-15,000
- The Standard-Times, of New Bedford, daily newspaper with circulation of 15,000-25,000
- The Sunday Standard-Times, of New Bedford, Sunday newspaper with circulation of 20,000-30,000
- The Providence Sunday Journal, Sunday newspaper with circulation of more than 45,000
- The South County Independent, of South Kingstown, weekly community newspaper with circulation of 3,000-8,000
Receiving a Publick Occurrences Award, presented to recognize individual and team merit for a body of work at a New England newspaper in memory of the first North American newspaper published in 1690 in Boston, was The Herald News of Fall River for a series of stories on child abuse.
In addition to the awards given to news organizations, the association gave out individual honors at the conference, including the AP Sevellon Brown New England Journalist of the Year to the Providence Journal’s W. Zachary Malinowski for his series of stories “The Cost of a Bullet,” which tallied up the human, societal and financial cost of gun violence.
Held in conjunction with the NENPA conference was the New England Society of News Editors Journalism Conference, at which Yankee Quill Awards were given for lifetime achievement. Honored at a dinner Thursday night was Providence Journal Executive Editor Karen Bordeleau.
