OCEAN CITY – The Ocean City Sentinel won seven statewide awards in the New Jersey Press Association Better Newspaper Contest, including first place awards for its coverage of the proposed wind turbine farm off the coast, its local sports coverage and in photography.
The Sentinel also earned awards for special subject writing, coverage of crime and the courts, its annual guide to hurricane preparedness and sports writing.
“We were pleased to get these awards,” Sentinel Editor and Publisher David Nahan said. “Because of strains imposed on staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic – something we know has affected all sorts of businesses the past two years – we did not enter work in many categories in this annual competition. Still, we wanted to take part because it gave us a chance to look back on work we did over the course of 2021 and then to see how that work stacked up among our newspaper peers in New Jersey.”
Coverage of Ocean Wind 1
The newspaper won a first-place award in the Environmental, Health and Science Writing category for its coverage of the Ocean Wind 1 project, a proposal to build up to 99 massive wind turbines 15 miles off the coast of Cape May and Atlantic counties. The judge wrote, “This was by far the best entry in the competition. I thought the reporting was fantastic. It seemed to cover every angle, the coverage itself populated with lots of diverse voices.”
“Ocean City has been ground zero for vocal opposition to the project,” Nahan said, “so I have been writing about it regularly, including how Ocean City Council has reacted to the project, the formation of a grassroots group to fight the plan and talking to the main company involved, the Danish firm Ørsted, which wants to build the farm in a joint venture with PSEG.
“Because Ocean Wind 1 wants to run its transmission cables through Ocean City, this community has had an outsized role in a major national energy policy shift to build wind turbine farms up and down the East Coast,” Nahan added. “We want to keep our readers informed while trying to provide a balance of views from multiple angles. And we continue to welcome numerous letters to the editor both pro and con.”
Special subject writing
Elizabeth Little, a Mainland Regional High School graduate who worked for the Sentinel full-time in the summer during her break from college, earned a second-place award for special subject writing. Her entry was a story about Ocean City Police Chief Jay Prettyman talking to the public about new laws, enacted around marijuana reform in New Jersey, and how they impact police enforcement.
“Good reporting on local politics and analysis of new polices,” the judge wrote.
“Fellow editor Craig Schenck and I are really proud of Libby,” Nahan said. “It is wonderful to see an up and coming local journalist get cited for her work. We believe she has a bright future.”
“Libby has shown tremendous growth since she started working with our newspapers several years ago and we were confident in her ability to cover an involved public event such as this for the Sentinel,” Schenck said. “We are proud that she not only delivered a quality story to our readers but also won a statewide award for her effort.”
Coverage of courts
Schenck earned his own third-place award for his coverage of the Atlantic County municipal court consolidation as the county worked to combine municipal courts to save taxpayers money while providing additional resources to those in the court system. “Craig has followed that on both the county level and in his coverage of city councils in Somers Point, Linwood and Northfield, getting perspectives from multiple viewpoints,” Nahan said. “Craig made it a point to follow the consolidation from start to finish.”
First place for sports section
Schenck teamed up with Nahan and writers Kyle McCrane and Clyde Hughes for a first-place award for the Sentinel’s sports section. The award is for the layout, design and content of the section. One sports section the newspaper submitted for the contest led with the Ocean City High School boys lacrosse team winning the South Jersey championship. Schenck wrote the lead story, which featured Nahan’s photo of bloody senior Brady Rauner smiling and running with the trophy after the game.
“The photo here is absolutely stunning,” the judge wrote. It captures and crystalizes a moment that, when taken with the clean and crisp design, conveys a level of emotion hard to capture. A true gem here.”
“One of the hallmarks of our sports coverage over the years that has earned us numerous awards has been the fact we love to write about our local athletes and publish photos of as many of them as possible – not just the stars, but all the contributing members. We have greatly expanded our use of photos on our website at ocnjsentinel.com,” Nahan said.
Nahan also earned a third-place award for his sports writing. The portfolio he entered centered around the OCHS Red Raider baseball team winning its first-ever state championship last June.
“That game was so intense, going twice as long as a normal game in brutal heat, with suspense up to the last out on a great double play in the 14th inning,” Nahan said. “Those stories wrote themselves. One of the most fun aspects of being a jack of all trades at a small newspaper is being able to be on the sidelines covering our local athletes with a camera and a recorder.”
Alert Me!
Writer Rachel Shubin and Nahan combined to earn a second-place award in the special sections category for the newspaper’s annual guide to being prepared for storms. It is a joint project between the newspaper, the Ocean City Office of Emergency Management and the Ocean City Free Public Library. The 2021 guide was titled, “Alert Me!” The aim was to ensure residents, second home-owners and visitors can get the information they need to be ready for storms that can hit the barrier island.
“Rachel did an outstanding job with her stories for the guide,” said Nahan, who was the editor of the publication. “She loves to write about the weather and it showed.”
Feature photo cited
The Ocean City Sentinel competes in the weekly newspaper division in the press association’s editorial competition. There also are daily newspaper categories. The NJPA’s photography competition, however, is combined. It is open to photographers from all member newspapers across New Jersey, daily and weekly, no matter the size.
Nahan took the first-place award in the feature photo category for an entry showing Stella Fleming reacting when she got the news she was a runner-up in August’s Little Miss Ocean City pageant.
“She was just so cute,” Nahan said. “The way she reacted you would have thought she won the Miss America crown, not third runner-up in Little Miss. She was genuinely thrilled. The next night she got to be thrilled all over again when her big sister, Makenna, won the Junior Miss Ocean City crown.”