Letting you know that our office will be closed on Friday, July 4th, in observance of the holiday. The eBulletin will take a brief pause and resume publishing the following Friday. Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

NENPA Staff

Each year, as part of our New England Newspaper Awards Program, we have the honor of recognizing individual journalists, educators, and vital contributors whose commitment to our industry uplifts us all.

These awards aren’t about accolades for their own sake. They exist to shine a spotlight on people who have, in most cases, dedicated their professional lives to journalism in front of or behind the scenes in a support role, telling the stories that matter, strengthening their communities, supporting investigative work, and passing on their knowledge to the next generation.

This summer, we invite you to nominate outstanding individuals for these four special honors:

AP Sevellon Brown New England Journalist of the Year

This award honors the region’s most accomplished journalist—someone whose exceptional work embodies the best of our profession. It celebrates consistently high-quality reporting, storytelling skills, journalistic ethics, and impact on the public’s right to know.

✅ Nominate a peer or colleague whose work you admire.
✅ Let’s recognize the professionals setting the standard for New England journalism.
✅ Nominations are $60 each.
Learn more & nominate

Bob Wallack Community Journalism Award

Named for a champion of local news, this award honors a journalist who exemplifies dedication to community journalism. It recognizes meaningful, impactful coverage that strengthens civic life and empowers local readers.

✅ Know someone who has gone the extra mile for their town or region?
✅ Help us highlight the essential role of community-focused reporting.
✅ Nominations are $60 each.
Learn more & nominate

The Cornerstone Award

Journalism is a team effort, and some of the most critical contributions happen behind the scenes. The Cornerstone Award honors an individual whose work supports and strengthens a news organization in indispensable ways.

✅ This could be someone whose research powers investigative reporting, who provides outstanding production support, or who consistently helps deliver excellent journalism without always being in the spotlight.
✅ If you know someone who is truly a cornerstone of your newsroom’s success, please consider nominating them.
✅ Nominations are $50 each.
Learn more & nominate

New England Journalism Educator of the Year

Journalism doesn’t thrive without the people who teach it. This award honors an outstanding journalism educator in a university or college classroom. Many of the best journalism teachers in New England are “professors of practice”, experienced journalists who bring real-world wisdom to their students while continuing to work in the field. Others are dedicated instructors shaping the next generation with care and rigor.

✅ We’re asking for your help: If you know someone teaching journalism today whose commitment and mentorship deserve recognition, please nominate them.
✅ Universities and colleges, encourage your faculty to apply or nominate a colleague!
✅ Let’s honor those keeping our profession alive by investing in the future.
✅ Nominations are free.
Learn more & nominate

Why Your Nominations Matter

These awards exist because journalism is, at its heart, a profession of people—storytellers, investigators, educators, and community advocates. By recognizing outstanding individuals, we celebrate not only their achievements but also the values that make journalism essential to a healthy democracy.

We need your help to ensure these awards reflect the true excellence across New England. Take a few minutes today to think about who you’d nominate—and make sure their contributions don’t go unnoticed.

Learn more about the Newspaper of the Year Awards

The United States Postal Service is on the brink of a self-induced collapse.  The failed policies of the Delivering for America Plan have driven away customers through a combination of sky-high rate increases and degraded service.  David Steiner, who will take over as Postmaster General on July 14, 2025, has a tough job to do and little time to do it, with some estimates indicating the USPS could be insolvent as soon as 2028.

Congress has a key role to play in helping him right the ship, but must get off the sidelines and act.  A useful step occurred earlier this week with a hearing before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations. The National Newspaper Association (NNA) provided a statement for the hearing that lays out key actions Congress can take to help restore the USPS.   

We emphasized that NNA members serve their communities, providing news on local events and civic matters that are not covered anywhere else, and that they depend on the USPS to get their papers to subscribers. The USPS — and by extension the small businesses in the communities they serve — faces an immediate and existential crisis. We urge Congress to act swiftly and compel meaningful reform at the USPS.

Here are three actions Congress can take right now to get the USPS back on track and keep commerce in America moving:

• Demand the USPS Board halt the Delivering for America Plan, including the large rate increase planned for July 13, 2025.  This increase, far above the rate of inflation will only deepen the hole and ties the hands of incoming Postmaster General David Steiner, who should have the opportunity to assess the situation. The same holds true for the network consolidations and service cuts.  Every customer that is lost through these increases and service reductions is one less Steiner can rely on in the future. 
• Modernize and empower the USPS regulator. Effective checks and balances are needed to keep the USPS on track.  Congress needs to update and modernize the postal regulatory process to better safeguard against excessive rates and poor service by passing H.R. 3004, The USPS SERVES US Act.
• Measure newspaper costs accurately. Congress should compel accurate measurement of newspaper service and hold the USPS accountable for maintaining and improving service quality by enacting H.R. 2098/S.1002, the Deliver for Democracy Act

These are all commonsense steps Congress can take to address what has been clearly a failed approach by USPS management.  Steiner has a huge job ahead of him and will need all the help he can get.  

Congress must act now to make sure the nation’s next Postmaster General is not the last one.

By Martha Diaz Aszkenazy, Chair, National Newspaper Association
Publisher, The San Fernando Valley (California) Sun/El Sol Newspapers

Headshot image available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1enmZjAa0Kegv7y3SQC9Ddl5CVSRT_2w_?usp=sharing

Each year, the New England Newspaper & Press Association honors the most courageous and consequential reporting in our region through the Publick Occurrences Award. Named after the first newspaper published in America in 1690, this prestigious honor celebrates journalism that exposes injustice, drives reform, and uplifts the role of a free press in civic life.

Entries that receive this award exemplify the best of our profession — investigations that uncover systemic problems, stories that challenge the status quo, and coverage that sparks real-world change.

🗓️ Entries are $125 each and are open now through Friday, July 11.

You can view award submission guidelines and winning entries from past years on the Publick Occurrences page:
🔗 https://www.nenpa.com/awards-recognition/publick-occurrences

This year, all Publick Occurrences entries will also be considered for the A-Mark Prizes, a new awards program that includes up to $90,000 in cash prizes across New England. These prizes are designed to further elevate and reward ambitious, accountability-focused journalism.

If your newsroom has produced reporting that has made a difference — in your community or beyond — don’t miss the chance to enter.

We are pleased to announce that entries for the NENPA New England Newspaper Awards Program are open now through July 11, 2025. This year, in addition to our long-standing honors recognizing editorial excellence, transparency, and public service, we are introducing an exciting new series of awards—the A-Mark Prizes, which will provide up to $90,000 in monetary awards to journalists and newsrooms.

All Publick Occurrences and First Amendment entries will automatically be entered for consideration in the A-Mark Prizes.

All awards will be presented at the 2025 Fall Leadership Conference in Northampton, MA, on September 25-26, 2025, at the Hotel Northampton.

Newspaper of the Year Awards:

New England Newspaper of the Year
Celebrates overall excellence in reporting, design, photography, and public service. Judged holistically across all areas of newspaper production.

Publick Occurrences Awards
Honors journalistic work that has made a profound impact on the public or initiated important civic discussions, echoing the spirit of America’s first newspaper.

Allan B. Rogers Editorial Award
Recognizes editorial writing that makes a compelling, reasoned argument and contributes to the editorial voice of a publication.

New England First Amendment Award
Presented to individuals or organizations that champion freedom of the press and the public’s right to know, often at great personal or institutional risk.

AP Sevellon Brown New England Journalist of the Year
Awarded to an individual journalist for outstanding reporting, ethics, and leadership in news coverage over the past year.

Bob Wallack Community Journalism Award
Highlights a story, series, or body of work that strengthens connections within a community and elevates local voices.

The Cornerstone Award
Recognizes extraordinary service to the newspaper industry through innovation, mentorship, advocacy, or long-term leadership.

New England Journalism Educator of the Year Award
Recognizes a professor at a university or college in the six-state region who is doing outstanding work to prepare journalists to lead our newspaper organizations into the future.

A-Mark Prizes
Recognizes and honors outstanding investigative journalism that reveals hidden truths, holds power to account, or drives public awareness or reform. The awards will reward ambitious, well-researched reporting that may expose a wrong, hold powerful individuals accountable, or explore a complex problem, issue, or subject.

Registration is now open for the NENPA/NYPA Fall Leadership Conference, taking place September 25-26, 2025, at Hotel Northampton in Northampton, Massachusetts.

This joint conference brings together publishers, editors, and newspaper leaders from across New England and New York for two days of networking, roundtable discussions, and leadership sessions focused on the critical issues shaping the future of local journalism.

Reserve Your Spot:
Click here to register for the conference.

Hotel Reservations:
To book your hotel room, please call the Hotel Northampton directly at 413-584-3100 and reference the block name: NE/NY Press Association.

For additional conference information and updates, visit:
https://nynewspapers.com/fall-conference-2025/

We look forward to seeing everyone in Northampton this September!

WOBURN, MA – Each year, the New England Newspaper and Press Association awards several scholarships to aspiring journalists through the Journalism Education Foundation of New England (JEFNE). The foundation aims to support and encourage young people who wish to pursue a career in journalism.

College students and high school seniors from New England who are studying and gaining work experience to prepare for a career in journalism are eligible to apply for JEFNE scholarships. This year, five students will receive $2,000 scholarships.

We are proud to introduce the recipients of the 2025 Journalism Scholarships:

Madeleine Goli Ahmadi, UNC-Chapel Hill
“I am honored to receive support from the JEFNE and the New England Newspaper & Press Association to continue pursuing my passion for journalism. Growing up in Vermont has shown me the importance of local media. Communities need people willing to share their stories – work that often begins in local high schools and universities. I am so grateful to my two favorite high school teachers who believe in this mission and are continuing to build journalists in Vermont, all my mentors at UNC-Chapel Hill who recognize the importance of innovative storytelling and the JEFNE who are generously supporting my mission to make a difference through impactful reporting.”

Cally Gudroe, University of New England
“I’m incredibly honored to receive the JEFNE Scholarship. Growing up in a rural town and tight-knit community, I saw firsthand how journalism can bring people together and how powerful it is when local stories are told with care and purpose. That early understanding shaped my commitment to sharing the voices and experiences that often go unheard. As a journalism student at the University of New England, I’ve reported for local news outlets on small businesses, school programs, and youth initiatives—stories that reflect the heart of a community. I’m also currently working on a documentary titled Rural Dreams, which focuses on rural teens and aims to empower their voices through storytelling. This scholarship allows me to continue doing the work I believe in by uplifting others, exploring underreported issues, and contributing to the future of local journalism. I’m deeply grateful to JEFNE and the New England Newspaper & Press Association for supporting my journey.”

Maren Halpin, Suffolk University
MacGregor Fiske Scholarship recipient
“Over the last three years of developing my skills as a journalist both in the classroom and student and professional newsrooms, I’ve gained such a deep passion for telling the stories and amplifying the voices of those in my community. At such a pivotal time, I am so honored to get to be part of such a talented and driven generation of journalists who are both defending a strong press and innovating what its future will look like. I am so grateful for this support from the Journalism Education Foundation of New England, the New England Newspaper and Press Association, and the Fiske family. I’ve been so lucky to have so much support from my family, friends, professors, mentors, and this industry at large, and this scholarship will further enable me to remain focused on my final year of my undergraduate degree and pursue more opportunities to learn in professional newsrooms across Boston and New England.”

The MacGregor Fiske Scholarship honors the late Mac Fiske, a fourth-generation newspaperman, who died in 2009 at the age of 75.

Jackson Kitts, Duke University
“The JEFNE scholarship will help me pursue my college education at Duke University. I plan to major in public policy and minor in journalism. I look forward to engaging more in the journalism community while in college through the Duke Chronicle and other opportunities.”

Emily Tarinelli, Stanford University
“I’m grateful to be one of JEFNE’s scholarship recipients. Next year, I will attend Stanford University and work towards my master’s degree in Journalism. JEFNE’s support will help me offset the cost of attendance. At Stanford, I intend to hone my skills in reporting stories about gender/LGBTQ+ issues and sports. After graduating in June 2026, I hope to return to New England and begin my professional journalism career.”

Download Student Headshots
Download Press Release

About the Journalism Education Foundation of New England
The Journalism Education Foundation of New England encourages and supports high school seniors and college students in the six-state region who aspire to pursue a career in journalism. The JEFNE scholarship is available to New England residents studying journalism or related fields at the college level.

Member newspapers of the New England Newspaper & Press Association join in sponsoring the scholarship program by promoting it to readers in their communities.

For more information about the JEFNE scholarship program, please contact Linda Conway at l.conway@nenpa.com.