OCEAN CITY — The Ocean City Sentinel won 25 statewide awards, including nine first-place awards, in the New Jersey Press Association’s 2023 Better Newspaper Contest.
The Ocean City Sentinel, with many of its stories featured in sister newspapers the Upper Township Sentinel and The Sentinel of Somers Point, Linwood and Northfield, competes against weekly newspapers in New Jersey. The advertising contest is open to daily and weekly publications.
The Sentinel received awards in the advertising, editorial and photography categories.
First-place editorial awards came in the Critical Thinking category for reviews of the Ocean City Pops Orchestra by Richard Stanislaw and the Special Issue category for the newspaper’s guide to Upper Township done in tandem with the Upper Township Business Association.
One of the three advertising awards won by graphic designer Sam Hutchins was a first-place in the Professional & Technology Services category for a Beacon Veterinary Clinic ad. He received a second-place award for The Santa Express & Seashore Lines ad in the Restaurant/Entertainment category and a third-place award in the Health Care category for a flu shots ad. Sentinel advertising director Steve Sellers was honored in those categories for his role in the ads.
In the Critical Thinking category, judges noted Stanislaw’s “obvious depth of knowledge” in his reviews. Stanislaw covers the Pops for the Sentinel.
Ocean City Sentinel editor David Nahan, Upper Township editor Craig D. Schenck and Hutchins won the award for the UTBA guide.
“At the end of each year, we look back on the work we have done and decide what to enter in the annual competition,” Nahan said. “We appreciate the NJPA for having the contest, which gives us the opportunity to see how our work stacks up against our journalistic peers in the state, and we thank the judges for recognizing our work.
“Our day-in, day-out goal is always to provide a quality weekly newspaper for our readers and our communities through stories, photos, opinions, design and advertising,” he added.
The Sentinel took home six third-place awards in the editorial competition, including for its sports section and editorial pages.
Schenck won a feature-writing award for his story about the legend of the Stilwell sisters during the Revolutionary War.
Nathan won for his sports writing portfolio, for editorial writing with his entry about ending the debate over state sex education standards, and in the environmental writing category for a feature story about piping plovers.
Nahan also won 11 awards, including six first-place awards, for his photography. Schenck won a third-place award in the portrait category for his photo of Susan Adair in her Crazy Susan’s cookie shop in Ocean City.
Nahan won first and second place in the sports feature picture story category for essays on the Ocean City Beach Patrol Women’s Lifeguard Invitational and Ocean City High School’s new girls flag football team.
He also took first, second and third places in the sports action category for photos of a lifeguard diving into a boat during the OCBP women’s lifeguard competition, Mainland Mustang long-jumper Emma Crozier-Carole sending sand spraying as she landed in the pit, and Mustang basketball player Mawali Osunniyi going up for a slam dunk over an opposing player.
He won second- and third-place awards in the sports feature photo category for photos of OCHS baseball player Duke McCarron intently focused as he ran the bases and of OCHS and Mainland girls basketball players during a game.
Nahan won a first-place award in the portrait category for his photo of 2023 Miss Ocean City Grace Oves on a jetty and a second-place award in the category for a photo of a vendor from Air Circus blowing bubbles during a Spring Block Party.
He also won first place in the feature picture story category for an essay on an Ocean City Wacky Wednesday pie-eating contest and a first place for feature photo from a single shot from that contest of Oves and 2023 Little Miss Ocean City Lyla Clark looking nauseous while trying to keep down their pies.
Nahan earned the first-place award in the general news category for capturing participants getting soaked during the annual Business Persons Plunge to kick off Memorial Day weekend in the resort. He took the third-place award in the category for a photo of an impassioned speaker during a public meeting on offshore wind development at the Ocean City Tabernacle.