The Bangor Daily News won Best Overall Website at the New England Press & Newspaper Association’s annual convention Saturday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
It was among a number of awards the BDN took home at the competition. The BDN also won Best Website Home Page and a first place prize in Housing News, second place in General Excellence, along with multiple other finalists.
“Our digital presence reflects the hard work of a lot of brilliant BDN staffers devoted to ensuring Maine readers can find the news and information they need,” Executive Editor Dan MacLeod said. “This recognition means a great deal to a newsroom that has been serving Maine since 1889, and it’s a reminder of why investing in strong local journalism and smart digital presentation is so essential.”
Sawyer Loftus, an investigative reporter on the BDN’s Maine Focus team, took home the top prize in Housing News for his investigation into the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s surge of foreclosure cases against properties purchased with a rural development mortgage, all but one of which were in Maine. The story was produced in partnership with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network.
Second place winners included Michael Shepherd in Obituaries for his report on the death of Bangor Rev. Herman “Buddy” Frankland; Lori Valigra in Climate Change or Weather Reporting for detailing how ticks are killing Maine moose; and Elizabeth Walztoni in Human Interest Feature Story for her coverage of one of the last remaining livestock auctions in the state.
Photographer Linda Coan O’Kresik also won second place for Portrait Photo, and third place for Contemporary Issues photo.
Among third place winners were Callie Ferguson in Immigration Coverage, Walztoni in General News Story, and sports reporter Larry Mahoney for Sports Columnist.