TRENTON — The Ocean City Sentinel won 15 awards in the New Jersey Press Association Better Newspaper Contest, six of them for first place, including best editorial and sports sections.
The Sentinel also won awards for best special issue, arts and entertainment writing, business and economic writing, column writing, coverage of government, environmental writing, special subject writing, a fresh approach to routine reporting and sports action photography.
The contest encompassed work published in 2025. It was open to the Press Association’s newspaper members from across New Jersey.
The Sentinel competes in the weekly newspaper division in all categories except photography. This year’s photography competition was open to all daily and weekly newspaper photographers.
Special Issue
The newspaper earned first place in the Special Issue category for its Be Prepared 2025 Guide and second place for its Upper Township Business Association Community Guide.
The newspaper staff, including advertising director Steve Zellers, graphic designer Sam Hutchins and writers/editors Craig D. Schenck and David Nahan, collaborated with the Ocean City Office of Emergency Management on the Be Prepared Guide and with the Upper Township Business Association on the UTBA guide.
The Be Prepared Guide, supported by the Ocean City Free Public Library, gives Ocean City residents and property owners guidance on how to get ready for coastal storms. The UTBA guide, distributed throughout Upper Township, is an overall guide to the community.
Editorial section
and column writing
The Sentinel earned first place for its editorial page and Nahan received a second-place for column writing; he is the editor of the section.
“I’m always happy when our editorial section is recognized,” Nahan said. “We believe a local newspaper needs a vibrant editorial page that is a true community forum with space for our readers’ opinions, our views and guest columnists. We know that not everyone agrees with what is printed there — and sometimes vehemently disagrees — but that is the point. A local newspaper connected to the community should be open and welcoming of diverse views.”
Nahan’s award for column writing came for “Snowflakes? It’s a blizzard out there,” which was about people reacting to what was on the editorial page, and for “Whose trust matters most?” about the Ocean City Board of Education having to make difficult decisions on controversial curriculum.
“I’m also happy to have our KASH editorial cartoons as an important part of the pages. We try to keep them focused on issues closest to home, although they do broach political topics as well,” the editor said.
Sports section,
sports writing
Schenck, contributing writer William Truitt and Nahan earned first place for the Sentinel’s sports section.
“Although sports sections aren’t as widely read as other parts of the newspaper, we believe there is a strong following for high school sports and it is important to showcase our student athletes,” Nahan said. “One advantage of having our online site — ocnjsentinel.com — in tandem with our printed newspaper editions is that we’re also able to publish literally thousands of photographs of our athletes that we hope become keepsakes for them.”
Nahan received a second-place award for his sports writing portfolio. It included stories about the Ocean City High School field hockey team upsetting St. Joseph of Hammonton, how a star athlete coped when injury wiped out her senior season and a feature on the Landmark Church Landsharks, who not only were champions in a church softball league, but whose members traveled to prisons in the South to play softball with inmates and proselytize.
Arts & Entertainment
A story about Carlee Briglia, a 2006 Mainland Regional High School graduate, earned Nahan a first-place award for Arts & Entertainment writing. Nahan wrote about Briglia co-producing a Tony Award-winning play, an example of the many feature stories the Sentinel prints to highlight interesting local people.
Fresh Approach
Another story about a local person earned a first-place award for Nahan in the category called “Fresh Approach to Routine Reporting.” That story, entitled, “Brighter Days,” documented the inspiring story of how a cancer diagnosis changed the trajectory of area resident and lifeguard Kristine Auble, who left one career to become a fashion designer.
Special Subject
Nahan earned the first- and second-place awards, respectively, in the Special Subject category for a trio of stories on the extensive preparation U.S. Coast Guard helicopter rescue swimmer crews go through to prepare for their dangerous work, and for two stories on the Ocean City Pride Fest.
“The rescue swimmer story came about through the Ocean City Beach Patrol that had the chance to do a drill with a USCG crew that included a former OCBP lifeguard,” Nahan said. “We routinely write about our beach patrol and it was fascinating to see them conduct training on the back bay behind Ocean City — getting lifted up to a hovering helicopter — and learn about the Coast Guard constantly training to always be prepared to live up to their motto, ‘Always Ready.’”
The Pride Fest stories were about the speakers at the annual rally sponsored by We Belong Cape May County and the many groups that came out to support the LGBTQIA+ community.
Business & Economic
writing award
Schenck earned a second-place award for his Business & Economic Writing portfolio. His stories included Cape May County being the top in the nation for luxury vacation homes, how the county was hoping to beat its record tourism growth, and an engaging feature about the Plum family, which operates Custard Huts in Somers Point and Upper Township.
“Craig’s writing illustrates not just the macro picture of economics in our readership area, including real estate and tourism, but also the stories about local businesses,” Nahan said. “So many people got their first jobs with the Plum family.”
“Craig also writes the House of the Week stories that appear in the Sentinel,” Nahan added. “They’re a popular feature because real estate is so key to our local economy and, frankly, because people like reading about the cool homes up for sale.”
Coverage of
Government
Schenck received the third-place award in the Coverage of Government – Art Weissman Memorial Award for a pair of stories about Somers Point considering and then changing rules for short-term rentals.
The award recognizes excellence in writing on a single topic related to government, such as a project or controversy.
Environmental Writing
Nahan earned a third-place award for Environmental Writing for an article entitled “Piping Plover Prognosis.” The story was about piping plovers nesting in the north end of Ocean City and state Fish and Wildlife analysis of the endangered birds’ future in New Jersey.
“I have to thank a local couple for their vigilance on environmental issues that led me to this story and others, including terrapin rescue in Ocean City and at Stockton University and horseshoe crab tagging in Delaware Bay,” Nahan said. “It’s important to cover issues with our local wildlife and it’s an added bonus getting to be outdoors doing these stories.”
Extended Coverage
Stories about the ongoing saga of what will happen to the Wonderland Pier amusement park property won a second-place award for Ongoing/Extended Coverage of a topic. “The only hard part about this entry,” Nahan said, “was picking out which stories to enter in the contest since it seems like I wrote a hundred of them in 2025.”
Photography
This year’s NJPA photography contest, which used to have separate divisions for weekly and daily newspaper photographers, was combined into one contest.
Nahan earned a second-place award in the Sports Action category for a photo of OCBP lifeguard Callie Bellwoar balanced on the edge of a wave during a summer competition.
“That was actually my favorite action photo from last year,” Nahan said. “I’m really happy it was recognized in a category that gets a lot of entries.”
Awards Ceremony
Awards will be presented during the NJPA’s annual ceremony in April.