Methow Valley News reporters Ann McCreary and Marcy Stamper have been named winners of a national Sigma Delta Chi Excellence in Journalism award for their reporting on the Carlton Complex Fire last summer.
The News reporters won in the breaking news category for non-daily newspapers and wire services around the nation, for their story in the July 23, 2014, issue of the newspaper.
The Sigma Delta Chi awards, which are conferred by the Society of Professional Journalists, recognize outstanding work published or broadcast during 2014. The News was competing against all other non-daily newspapers in the country.
For a pdf file of the winning entry, go to: www.spjvideo.org/sdx/sdx14/deadline-reporting-nd.pdf.
The July 23 issue was produced during the week that the entire Methow Valley was without power and many of the usual communications systems were either not working or severely limited. The paper was produced using a borrowed generator and a couple of functioning cell phones.
McCreary and Stamper did much of their reporting by driving around the valley, observing what was happening, talking to people and taking photographs. Daily updates were filed on the newspaper’s Facebook page by social media manager Darla Hussey.
“I’m incredibly proud of Ann, Marcy and the entire Methow Valley News team,” publisher Don Nelson said. “In the face of daunting challenges, everyone here pulled together, figured out ways to get things done and helped make sure that we never stopped publishing even during the worst of the fires.”
“This is probably the biggest award the News has ever won,” Nelson added. “It’s gratifying to see the work of a small newspaper in a rural community get this kind of recognition.”
For a full account of how the paper continued newsgathering during the summer, see our Trial by Fire magazine, which can also be viewed in pdf form here.
Two other Washington state papers won Sigma Delta Chi awards. The Daily Herald in Everett won in the breaking news category for daily newspapers with less than 50,000 circulation, for its coverage of the Marysville-Pilchuck High School shootings. The weekly Pacific Northwest Inlander in Spokane won an award for public service journalism in the non-daily category for a series entitled “State of Mind,” which was about mental illness and how society deals with it.
