Pilot named state's top weekly newspaper
The Whitefish Pilot has been named the 2015 winner of the Thomas Dimsdale Award for best weekly newspaper in Montana.
The award was announced Saturday as part of the Better Newspaper Contest at the Montana Newspaper Association convention at Big Sky. The Pilot also was named the Division 3 winner for general excellence against weeklies in its size range.
Rick Weaver is the publisher of the Whitefish Pilot and Matt Baldwin is the editor.
Chris Peterson, the editor of the Hungry Horse News in Columbia Falls, was the winner of the prestigious photo of the year award for his shot of a mountain goat licking salt from a railing at the Hidden Lake Overlook in Glacier National Park.
Fittingly, the photo of the year contest is named after Mel Ruder, the founder of the Hungry Horse News.
The Daily Inter Lake won eight awards in the Better Newspaper Contest.
Graphic designer Lisa Reid won first place for Best Ad to Sell or Promote Merchandise for an ad she designed for Penco Power Products.
Also in advertising, Brenda Ritter won a third-place award for Best Image Building Ad for a design she created for Mimi’s Bridal & Formal Wear.
In the newsroom, Managing Editor Frank Miele won three awards.
Miele won second place for Best Editorial for “Ending the silence about incest,” a follow-up to a news story by Jesse Davis in which several incest survivors told their story.
Miele also won second and third place in the Best Column Writing category. Second place went to a column called “Man-given rights and government gone wild,” and third place went to his column about covering a late-night earthquake with a breaking-news story and social media.
Three Daily Inter Lake reporters also won prizes, including two awards for lifestyle coverage.
Ryan Murray claimed second place in that category for his story about Tim Grattan’s battle against male breast cancer. Former reporter Jim Mann won third place for his feature about the Ten Commandments park on U.S. 2 in Columbia Heights.
In addition, Hilary Matheson won third place for Best News Story for her in-depth look at a local survivor’s ordeal in Hurricane Odile.
The Whitefish Pilot, Hungry Horse News and Daily Inter Lake are all part of Hagadone Montana Newspapers.