Newspaper company, including Kent Reporter, takes home awards

Sound Publishing newspapers, of which the Kent Reporter is a part, garnered 184 awards at the annual Better Newspapers Competition held in conjunction with the Washington Newspaper Publishers conference in Yakima October 1-4.

Sound has 26 newspapers that are members of the WNPA and 23 of them took awards in General Excellence, News, Photography and Advertising categories.

The Marysville Globe, Mercer Island Reporter and Auburn Reporter all won in the General Excellence category. Marysville and Mercer Island took first place honors in their respective circulation classes and Auburn Reporter finished third in its circulation class.

Individually, Chad Schuster of the Bainbridge Island Review was named First Place for News Writer of the Year. Rachel Brant of the Central Kitsap Reporter was a finalist for second place and Dean Radford of the Renton Reporter was a finalist for third. Joel Willits of the Bellevue Reporter was a finalist for third place for Sportswriter of the Year.

Nine Sound newspapers won 10 or more awards each. Topping the list was the Central Kitsap Reporter with 18, followed by the Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber with 16, South Whidbey Record with 15, Journal of the San Juans, Port Orchard Independent and Bainbridge Island Review with 13, Whidbey News Times with 12, Snoqualmie Valley Record with 11 awards and Enumclaw Courier-Herald with 10.

The Kent Reporter captured four awards in the state contest:

• First place: Kent ad staff, for best youth-oriented content with the feature “Dollars for Kent Scholars.”

• First place: Staff writer Christine Shultz for best health or medical story, with “Lead issues prompt Kent grandmother to take action”

• Second place: Staff writer Steve Hunter for best crime and courts story, “Was it abuse of power or proper traffic stop?”

• Third Place: Daniel Mooney, for best personality profile, long, with “The empty road and a full life.”