OCEAN CITY – The Ocean City Sentinel won nine awards in the New Jersey Press Association Better Newspaper Contest for coverage in 2020.
The entries that won appeared in the Ocean City Sentinel last year and in sister newspapers the Upper Township Sentinel and The Sentinel of Somers Point, Linwood and Northfield.
The newspaper won three first-place awards, three second-place awards and three third-place awards.
Sentinel editor David Nahan won first-place awards for editorial comment and for the newspaper’s editorial section layout and content.
He joined with fellow editor Craig D. Schenck and reporters Clyde Hughes and Kyle McCrane for a first place for the Sentinel’s sports section layout and content.
Schenck earned a second place for his coverage of elections/politics.
Bill Barlow won a second-place award in special subject writing and a third-place award in the category “Fresh Approach to Routine Reporting.”
Graphic designer Sam Hutchins and Nahan combined to win a second-place award for the Upper Township Community Guide in the special issue category.
Nahan also won two third-place awards, one for feature writing and one for special subject writing.
“After a brutal 2020 that hit our newspapers, just like it did so many local businesses, we were happy to receive this statewide recognition of our coverage from our journalism peers,” Nahan said.
“The editorial section and editorial comment awards mean a lot to us because we believe our commentary pages are a great community forum. Through letters to the editor and guest columns, members of the community are able to offer that which we hope stimulate conversations about issues that matter here at home. We appreciate all of the readers who take the time to write in to us,” he said.
The editorial entries that won first place were entitled “Hobie Young isn’t the victim here,” about the former Upper Township Committee member who resigned, and “Did he get absolution for his Democratic sins” about U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew’s voting record being at odds with his party switch from Democrat to Republican.
Nahan said a different approach was required in covering sports in 2020, with the lack of spring high school sports or summer lifeguard competitions, combined with the shortened fall season and a winter season start that was pushed into the new year. That continues to be true this winter with some sports delayed and a number of games canceled or delayed because of COVID-19 concerns.
A judge wrote this about the Sentinel sports section: “I liked how the simple layout hid a much more complex scheme in conveying the sports coverage to the reader.”
“We love covering our Ocean City High School and Mainland Regional High School athletes,” Nahan said, “even more so when they compete against each other. By covering these teams, we also get to see teams from throughout the Cape-Atlantic League.”
Schenck’s was awarded for his political coverage, which included different angles.
Schenck’s winning entry was three stories – one about the work it took to handle mail-in ballots, another was an interview of a political expert explaining what could happen long-term with the congressional races in the Second District, and the third was about Linwood neighbors who maintained a friendship even though they supported opposing presidential candidates.
“Craig looked beyond the usual for his coverage of politics last year. He talked to county clerks, people in the community who were ardent political supporters, and an expert at the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University,” Nahan said. “He didn’t just stick with talking points from the candidates themselves.”
Barlow won a second-place for his story about an Ocean City surfer riding the “big wave of the winter,” which prompted the judge to note, “This landlubber could almost visualize herself inside the big wave with this good writing.” His other award for “Fresh Treatment” was how members of the local population of undocumented immigrants were faring during the pandemic.
“We appreciate Bill’s contributions to the Sentinel,” Nahan said.
Nahan’s other awards were for a feature story about victims of the tornado that tore through Upper Township and a long business feature on the G.E.I. Oyster Farm.
“We did not enter as much work in the annual Better Newspaper Contest for 2020 than we normally have in the past because of the conditions during the pandemic,” the editor said. “We started thinking about the contest at the end of last year as we looked back at what we had done in that weird year. We love being journalists covering our local communities. Entering the contest was a way to see how we stack up against our peers at weekly newspapers across New Jersey who were all writing and reporting in the same conditions.”