Each year the New England Newspaper and Press Association identifies our region’s best daily, weekly and specialty newspapers, and recognizes them with the prestigious “New England Newspaper of the Year” award. Winners are named in a range of circulation categories.
This one-of-a-kind competition is the only distinction of its kind in the newspaper industry that is judged by audience members. New England newspaper readers are appointed to evaluate the entries from a news consumer point of view and decide which deserve the honor of being named Newspaper of the Year.
All newspapers in the contest not only have a chance to be chosen for the award, but they also receive feedback from newspaper readers about the strengths and weaknesses of their print and digital publications and how their paper stacks up compared to similar-size papers in our region.
Each editor that enters receives a summary scorecard with the reader judges’ ratings across a range of attributes that are typically associated with quality newspapers and written verbatim comments.
Readers evaluate each paper’s relative strengths and weaknesses, including:
- quality of reporting and writing
- use of photos
- design and presentation
- digital offering
- overall utility and value
- General impressions, such as: Does the newspaper inform, educate, entertain, inspire, motivate, lead? Does it reflect and care about the community it serves? Does it put the interests of the reader first? Is it unique or special in some way?
NENPA member newspapers are invited to enter in four categories as described below (weekday, Sunday, weekly, specialty). Newspapers are assigned to a competitive division within their category after all entries are received (i.e., small, medium and large weeklies, small, medium and large dailies, small, medium and large Sunday/weekend publications.)
To be considered, editors simply fill out an entry form and submit sample copies along with an entry fee.
The deadline to submit entries for the 2019 Newspaper of the Year competition is July 18th. Entries must be in the NENPA office by 4pm.
Weekday newspapers
Please submit three copies each of two weekday editions. One edition must be from the week of Monday, March 25 2019 to Saturday, March 30, 2019. The second can be from any weekday between June 1, 2018 and May 31, 2019.
Sunday newspapers
Please submit three copies each of two Sunday editions. One must be your Sunday, March 31, 2019 edition. The second can be any Sunday edition between June 1, 2018 and May 31, 2019. Newspapers with no Sunday edition may submit their Saturday Weekender edition.
Weekly community newspapers
Please submit three copies each of two editions. One edition must be from the month of March 2019 and the other from any week during the contest year of June 1, 2018 to May 31, 2019.
Specialty newspapers
Please submit three copies each of two editions. One must be from the month of March 2019 and the other from any point during the contest year of June 1, 2018 to May 31, 2019.
Questions? Please contact Christine Panek at c.panek@nenpa.com.
The winners will be honored at the New England Newspaper Conference Awards Luncheon, which will be held on Thursday October 10, 2019 at the AC Hotel Marriott in Worcester, MA.