Inter Lake wins 14 awards at state convention

The Daily Inter Lake won 14 awards Saturday in the 2009 Better Newspaper Contest sponsored by the Montana Newspaper Association.

Photographer Nate Chute led the staff with three individual awards, and combined with the sports staff to bring the Inter Lake five awards for sports coverage, including third place for best sports coverage overall in the state.

The awards were announced at the newspaper association’s annual convention, which was held in Bozeman this year. Judging was handled by the New Mexico Press Association.

The Inter Lake competes against Montana’s large daily newspapers (those with circulations above 7,500). Here is the list of Inter Lake winners:

Best Front Page: 2nd place to designers Scott Crandell and Heidi Gaiser.

Best In-Depth Reporting: 3rd place to Lynnette Hintze for her reporting on the past 10 years of the Libby asbestos crisis.

Best Agricultural Story: 3rd place to Nancy Kimball for her story on “homegrown hydroponics.”

Best Feature Story: Honorable mention to Candace Chase for her story about Iwo Jima veteran Les Smith.

Best Business Story: Honorable mention to Nancy Kimball for her story on the closing of Whitefish landmark Haines Drug.

Best Sports Section: 3rd place to sports editor Dave Lesnick and sports reporters Dixie Knutson and Dillon Tabish.

Best Sports Feature: 2nd place to Dixie Knutson for her feature about Flathead Bravettes basketball star Kelsey Hildal.

Best Sports Event Coverage: Honorable Mention to Dillon Tabish for his innovative advance story on the state track meet, “The 17 must-see stories at state.”

Best Feature Picture: 2nd place to Nate Chute for his fun photograph of zucchini baseball called “Baseball or squash?”

Best Sports Picture: 2nd place and 3rd place to Nate Chute for baseball and soccer photos.

Best Outdoors/Nature Photo: Honorable Mention to former photographer Allison Money for her popular hummingbird shot.

Best Single Ad (Process Color): 2nd place to Marjorie Bradner for an ad that made creative use of spot color against a black background.

Best Newspaper Promotion Advertising: 2nd place to Anna Mahlen for her work on the “Community Giving” ad campaign.

Inter Lake Managing Editor Frank Miele said he was especially pleased to see the Inter Lake’s small sports and photography staffs honored for their hard work.

“With the number of activities these guys are expected to cover in the growing Flathead Valley, there’s hardly a minute to breathe, let alone enter a competition like this,” Miele said. “They are all hard-working and creative and we are lucky to have them. In fact, the whole staff did a great job this year despite a heavier-than-ever workload.”

Prizes also went to a number of other Montana papers owned by the Hagadone newspaper group, the parent company which owns the Inter Lake.

Most notably, the Bigfork Eagle won 26 awards, including 12 first places, in its classification of papers with circulation of 1,499 or less. The paper, led by editor Jasmine Linabary and sports editor Jordan Dawson, won the divisional sweepstakes award for papers in its circulation category and also won the coveted Thomas J. Dimsdale Award for best newspaper in the state among weeklies and dailies with circulation under 7,500.

The Whitefish Pilot won 12 awards, the Western News in Libby won 10 awards, the Lake County Leader in Polson won six awards, the Clark Fork Valley Press in Plains won six awards, the Hungry Horse News won two awards, and the Mineral Independent in Superior won one.