The awards just keep on coming at AY Media Group. In addition to receiving 60 awards in the Arkansas Press Women Professional Communication Contest — including several first-place winners that will advance to nationals — and having five staffers nominated for honors in the Society of Professional Journalists Arkansas Pro Chapter Diamond Awards, several members of the AY team placed in the Arkansas Press Association Better Newspaper Editorial Contest.
Seven staff members won 23 awards across 13 categories in the APA contest.
Notably, AY swept the business, health, editorial and headline categories, winning first, second and third in each category. Dwain Hebda, editor-in-chief, won first, second and third place in the freelance category for articles published by AY Media Group through his company, Ya!Mule Wordsmiths.
Every staff member who placed in the contest is a winner; however, whether they placed first, second or third will not be announced until the awards ceremony June 27 in Eureka Springs.
Heather Baker, president and publisher, placed in the General Interest Column for What Happened: Four Years Later.
Hebda placed for Best Beat Reporter for his agriculture, music and entertainment beats. He also placed in Best Health-Medical Story for Arkansas Visionary: The Healer, Dr. Ali Krisht and Still in the Fight: Medicine, Tech Throwing All They’ve Got at Cancer; in Freelance Recognition for The Lifer: J.D. Skelton Lives Every Day of Sobriety as a Gift, #MeFirst: Paula Jones-McFadden Looks Back Over the Highs and Lows of Her Life — and Likes What She Sees, and Minutes to Memories: Nonprofit Helps Parents Cope With Loss of a Child; and in Headline Writing for Laughing Matters: After Five Decades, Jay Leno Still Knocking Them Dead, It’s Kind of a Pig Deal: Meet the Competitive Barbecuer Behind Rub Me Raw Spices and The Original Gagster: ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic Rollin’ Into Arkansas.
Mark Carter, senior editor, placed in Sports Feature for Feeding the Monster: Dave Van Horn on Developing Players in the NIL Age, Consistency and Expanding Baum-Walker; Best Business Story for The White Sands of Arkansas: Sheridan Operation’s Crushed Quartz Coming to a Golf Course, Pool or Ball Field Near You; and Humorous Column for Into the Woods: See Lumberjack, Be Lumberjack and Help! Ash Trees in Arkansas Need Someone.
Mak Millard, associate editor, placed in Feature Story for A Heart in the Right Place: Southern Hearts Rescue Helps Animals Who Need It Most and in Best Business Story for Growing Pains: Arkansas’ Rice, Soybean Industries Look Warily at the Year Ahead.
Sarah DeClerk, copy editor, placed in Best Business Story for Blue-Sky Thinking: Celebrating 50 Years, Dassault Falcon Jet Looks to Stay on Leading Edge of Aviation Industry and Best Education Story for Unwiring the Anxious Generation: Bell to Bell, No Cell Act Set to Improve Student Mental Health, Academic Performance.
Doug Crise, staff writer, placed in Sports News Story for Caught in the Crossfire: Uncertainty Clouds the Future of Razorback Football in Little Rock and Ready, Fire, Aim: Questions Run Rampant as Colleges Give Athletes a Cut of Their Revenue; in Sports Feature Story for Arkansas Razorbacks Hockey Club is Your Favorite Team You’ve Never Heard Of; and in Editorial for Can You Hear Me Now? and I Am Bobby Petrino, and Chances Are You Are Too.
Alex Hardgrave, staff writer, placed in News Story for Saving the Sparta: How Union County Protected Its Aquifer.
Mary LeSieur, former staff writer, placed in Best Health-Medical Story for Cancer Survivor, Nursing Student Uses Social Media Platform to Promote Breast Cancer Awareness and in Editorial for The College Question.
With the APA announcement, AY Media Group has officially outpaced its awards performance last year, when it won 66 awards across four contests. The 23 awards confirmed by the APA this year, plus the 60 awards from the APW, bring the year’s total to 83 so far.
In addition, five staffers have been named finalists for a total of 12 SPJ awards, and eight entries from six staffers await judgment in the National Federation of Press Women Professional Communications Contest.
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