OCEAN CITY – The Ocean City Sentinel won 23 awards in the New Jersey Press Association Better Newspaper Contest for reporting, feature writing and photography.
Competing against other weekly newspapers in New Jersey, the Sentinel also won awards for its opinion pages, sports section and two special issues.
“We submit entries for the NJPA Better Newspaper Contest every year,” Sentinel editor and publisher David Nahan said after getting the results Feb. 21. “As 2024 was coming to a close, we looked back at what we published and submitted what we believe is some of our best work to the contest. It is the opportunity to get judged by our peers in the journalism industry.”
Taking time to reflect on what was in the Sentinel helps guide what will be in the newspapers in the future, he said.
“We hope to provide our readers with quality newspapers each week with interesting stories and engaging photos,” Nahan said. “As a weekly, we’re not a breaking-news type of organization even though we do post some of our news stories first online at our website, ocnjsentinel.com. Rather than trying to get quick hits with shorter stories, we aim to provide more in-depth coverage in news, sports and feature stories.”
Many of the stories and photos carried in the Ocean City Sentinel are also published in the sister newspapers, the Upper Township Sentinel and The Sentinel of Somers Point, Linwood and Northfield. Some of these winning entries also were carried in the other sister newspaper, the Cape May Star and Wave.
“One of the awards I’m proudest of is a first place for our editorial section,” Nahan said. “We consider this a true community page because it is a combination of our views and our readers’ views.” He was happy to note the judge wrote that Sentinel opinion pages contained “strong editorials and great community engagement.”
The Sentinel also took second place for its sports section, which included contributing writers William Truitt and Clyde Hughes and staff members Craig D. Schenck and Nahan.
Arts and Entertainment
The Sentinel earned first and second place for arts and entertainment writing and a second place for critical thinking for contributing writer Richard Stanislaw’s reviews of the Ocean City Pops Orchestra.
The first-place award went to Nahan for his stories on Ocean City filmmaker Bill Nicolletti making his music documentary on the Philly Sound. Schenck took second place for his stories on PBS interviewing people in Somers Point about the cult classic movie “Eddie and the Cruisers.”
Health and Science
Nahan won a first-place award in Health and Science writing for his group of articles on Japanese documentary filmmaker Hideaki Ito’s movie “Silent Fallout: Baby Teeth Speak,” about strontium-90 fallout from nuclear testing on American soil. The filmmaker came to Ocean City to interview Joseph Mangano, whose organization worked anew on the baby tooth project, which measured radiation absorbed by American children. The third article featured Somers Point resident Shiho Burke, formerly of Ocean City, whose mother survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and the health effects on her extended family.
Responsible Journalism
Schenck earned a second-place award in the Responsible Journalism category for his series of stories about the mercury pollution scare in Upper Township that turned out to be based on bad test results.
Special Sections
The Ocean City Sentinel won second place for its Upper Township community guide done in conjunction with the Upper Township Business Association, a project headed by Sentinel advertising director Steve Zellers, featuring stories by Schenck and design by graphic artist Sam Hutchins. The Sentinel won a third-place award for its Be Prepared Guide about preparation for coastal storms done in conjunction with the Ocean City Office of Emergency Management and Ocean City Free Public Library. It featured stories by Nahan and contributing writer Rachel Shubin. Hutchins was the designer.
Advertising
Hutchins won a third-place award in the Best Real Estate ad category.
Thirteen awards
for photography
Nahan and Schenck combined for 13 awards for photography in the Better Newspaper Contest.
Schenck took first place in the sports action category with a photograph of lifeguards jumping out of a boat during a rescue competition. Nahan took second with a photo showing a collision at home plate during an Ocean City High School baseball game against Mainland Regional High School, and third place for a Red Raider catching a pass in the wild ending of last fall’s football game between Ocean City and Middle Township High School’s Panthers.
Nahan won first and second place in the sports feature category. The first was for a father and son wearing Hulk superhero gear running on the boardwalk during the OC CON comic book weekend. The second-place was for a photo of Mainland basketball players celebrating their triple-overtime victory in the South Jersey boys basketball championship.
Schenck won first-, second- and third-place awards in the general news category. The first was for a photo he took of a PBS interview in Somers Point for an “Eddie and the Cruisers” documentary, the second place for a photo of revelers on a dock watching Ocean City’s Night in Venice boat parade, and the third place for a little girl happily waiting to compete in an Ocean City pie-eating competition.
Nahan won first-, second- and third-place awards in the portrait category. The first place was for a portrait of Mainland Regional senior Anika Deshpande, who wrote a children’s book and designed clothes while doing an internship at Bowfish Kids in Ocean City. The second was of a Wildwood Beach Patrol lifeguard in a surf dash competition and the third of former Miss Ocean City Lola DeMarco.
Nahan also earned a second-place award in the general news picture story category for a photo spread on Wonderland Pier amusement park’s last day of operation.
The newspaper will receive its awards at an NJPA awards ceremony in April.
