Republican Herald wins national, state awards for stories, photos, advertising

May 9—The Republican Herald newsroom has won five awards, including three first place honors, in the 2021 Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association Keystone Media Awards contest, and a first place in the national Associated Press Sports Editors 2020 competition.

Also, the newspaper's advertising department won four awards in the PNA Foundation Advertising Contest.

For the Keystones, multimedia editor David McKeown earned his second straight first place in the breaking news photo category for a drone photo of a rescue boat in flood waters in Gilberton.

Staff photographer Jacqueline Dormer won second place in the same category for her photo of an emotional scene at a fire in Pottsville in which an American Red Cross worker was reaching out to comfort a sobbing woman.

Lifestyles editor Tina Heintzelman won first place for feature page design and sports editor Leroy Boyer won first place for sports page design.

The other award, an honorable mention, was for ongoing news coverage and involved staff writers Frank Andruscavage, Christine Lee, Vicki Terwilliger and John Usalis. The coverage detailed COVID-19 and local education, including stories on the preparation for online instruction as the pandemic hit, a move by students to cyber education, new attendance dilemmas created by remote learning and more.

The Republican Herald competes in Division III, which is for multiday publications with circulation of 10,000 to 19,999.

The annual Keystone awards banquet is canceled again this year because of the pandemic.

APSE award

Dormer was a first-place winner in Category C Action Photo in the APSE contest. Her winning entry showed a Pottsville Area High School soccer player pumping her fist while jumping in the air to celebrate a game-winning goal in the final seconds of play.

There were 36 entries from APSE members in Category C, which involves newspapers of 40,000 to 100,000 print circulation and websites with 250,000 to 750,000 unique monthly visitors. Second through 10th place winners in the category were from newspapers nationwide.

Winners will be honored at a banquet this summer at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas.

In March, the Republican Herald learned that Boyer and McKeown were winners in the Best Video category in the 2020 APSE contest. They produced the Republican Herald's Athlete of the Week video to honor the 27 Athlete of the Week award recipients from the 2019-20 school year.

Advertising honors

The advertising department, competing among newspapers with 10,000 to 19,999 circulation, won four awards:

—Second place in the special event/vendor support idea category for the "Pour It On" 2020 Business Review section.

—Honorable mention in the special event/vendor support idea category for the From The Heart promotion.

—Honorable mention in the multiple advertiser ad category for the Shop Pottsville NOW promotion.

—Honorable mention in the best automotive/transportation ad for Used Car Connection.