The News & Advance has solid showing at VPA awards

NORFOLK — For the fourth year in a row, The News & Advance has been named the top mid-sized daily newspaper in Virginia.

The paper also took home two best-in-show awards for its series, “The Rites of Life,” at the annual Virginia Press Association banquet, held Saturday night in Norfolk.

In a separate awards contest, The News & Advance photographer Jill Nance was named

2008 VNPA Photographer of the Year by the Virginia News Photographers Association.

The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk was named in the Virginia Press Association competition as the top newspaper in 2008 in the large daily category, and the Northern Virginia Daily of Strasburg won in the category for small dailies. The Nelson County Times was named the best non-daily newspaper with circulation less than 6,000.

The News & Advance staff won 24 first-place awards and 46 total awards in the VPA contest, which was judged by the journalists from the Indiana Press Association.

The contest awards points for first, second and third place. The News & Advance earned 107 out of a possible 258 points in a field of seven newspapers, earning the most points in its group in all divisions of the contest — writing, news presentation, art/photography and multimedia.

The Lynchburg newspaper also joined The Virginian-Pilot, Style Weekly of Richmond and Richmond Magazine in winning two best-in-show awards.

Those awards are presented for writing, photography, art and presentation for each of the contest’s divisions — daily publications, non-daily publications and specialty publications. Winners are drawn from first-place selections in each category.

Staff Writer Liz Barry won best-in-show in the daily writing category for “Rites of Life,” a 10-part series published in the paper’s Lifestyles section on milestones in the lives of the people of Central Virginia. The judges wrote, “This comprehensive series on the benchmarks of our lives — from birth to death — was a treat to read. What is most impressive was the writer’s ability to put a face with each of these ‘firsts’.’’

The News & Advance photographer Kim Raff also won the best-in-show award for daily photography for her work on the series, drawing comments from the judges that included, “A strong photographer-driven project with enough variety to keep us (and readers) engaged through the entirety.”

Raff also was the top individual winner in the main contest, with four first-place awards. Photographer Jill Nance and staff writer Carrie Sidener each won three first-place awards.

In addition to Photographer of the Year, Nance took home other awards from VNPA: second place in the general news category, first and second place in the sports picture story category, first place for illustration, second place for portfolio, honorable mention for pictorial, first place for news slideshow and first place for features slideshow.

Chet White was honored by VNPA with honorable mentions in the sports/action, portrait and feature categories, second place for feature picture story, third place for portfolio and second place for features slideshow. Kim Raff took home third place for illustration and honorable mention for features slideshow. Slideshows of photos can be seen at www.vnpa.org.

Check out some of The News & Advance's VPA award-winning entries:

The Rites of Life

Season of Sacrifice

Deadly Drivers

Limitless Dreams

At Home on the Farm

Video: Monkeyclaus

First place
Feature series or continuing story: Liz Barry, “The Rites of Life”
Multimedia feature reporting: Liz Barry, Kim Raff, “The Rites of Life”
In-depth or investigative reporting: Carrie Sidener, Chris Dumond, “Deadly Drivers”
General news writing: Carrie Sidener, Sarah Watson for coverage of the Appomattox explosion and its aftermath
Education writing: Annie McCallum
Public safety writing: Carrie Sidener
Health, science and environmental reporting: Sarah Watson
Sports writing portfolio: Chris Lang
Multimedia news reporting: Justin Faulconer, Kim Raff, “Season of Sacrifice”
Combination picture and story: Laura Clark, Chet White, “Young Heart, Old Soul”
Feature photo: Jill Nance, “Kathryn Lewellyn and Stephen Birge”
Sports feature photo: Jill Nance, “Ben Shipps”
Online slideshow: Jill Nance, “Limitless Dreams”
Photo Illustration: Kim Raff, “Crystal Rea”
Picture story or essay: Kim Raff, “The Rites of Life”
Personality or portrait photo: Chet White
Online video: Chet White, “Monkeyclaus”
General makeup: Staff
Specialty pages or sections: Jason Snyder
Illustrations: Jeremy Falls, “No Way In”
Editorial pages: Logan Anderson, Jon Ness
Business, financial pages: Jeremy Falls
Page design: Matt McWilliams
Sports pages: Chris Morris, Jim Steinmiller, David Hunt

Second Place
Multimedia feature reporting: Laura Clark, Chet White, “Young Heart, Old Soul”
In-depth or investigative reporting: Chris Dumond, “Saving Pvt. Johnson”
Government reporting: Alicia Petska
Feature series or continuing story: Justin Faulconer, “Season of Sacrifice”
Specialty pages or sections: Jeremy Fogt, for Thursday Lifestyles sections
Informational graphics: Jon Ness, “History comes alive at Old City Court House”
Front page: Jon Ness, Matt McWilliams, Jason Snyder
Page design: Jason Snyder
Combination picture and story: Nathan Warters, Jill Nance, “The buck starts here”
Feature photo: Chet White, “Jonathan Falwell”
Photo Illustration: Jill Nance, “Brian Bell”
Sports feature photo: Kim Raff, “Da’quan James”
Picture story or essay: Chet White, “Young heart, old soul”

Third Place
Business and financial writing: Bryan Gentry
Multimedia news reporting: Carrie Sidener, Matt Busse, Jill Nance, “Deadly Drivers”
Column writing: Darrell Laurant
Combination picture and story: Liz Barry, Kim Raff, “The Rites of Life”
Personality or portrait photo: Jill Nance, “Ben Shipps”
Photo Illustration: Kim Raff, “Becca Mancar”
Breaking news photo: Chet White, “Lynchburg Fire and Rescue”
Feature photo: Chet White, “Jessica Carwile and Michelle Backstrom”
Online slideshow: Chet White, “Showing her true colors”