VTDigger, Vermont’s nonprofit digital news organization, won 11 awards at the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s annual convention Saturday in Waltham, Massachusetts — for reporting, photography, graphics, newsletters and podcasts.
Top honors went to photographer Glenn Russell and data reporter Erin Petenko.
Russell’s photograph of a 14-year-old, bus-riding student giving the middle finger to anti-mask and vaccine protesters went viral when it was published in September 2021. On Saturday, it won two first-place awards — in the “General news photo” and “news feature photo” categories.
Petenko took home a first-place award in the “Best infographic on website” category for “A look back at a year of a ‘reopened’ Vermont.” The piece used data and charts to illustrate how the Delta, Omicron and BA.2 variants of Covid-19 upended Vermont officials’ expectations for the second year of the pandemic.
VTDigger also won second- and third-place awards in eight other categories:
- Outstanding newsletter — Riley Robinson, Sarah Mearhoff and Lola Duffort for Final Reading, VTDigger’s daily digest from the Vermont Statehouse
- Best podcast — Mike Dougherty for “The Deeper Dig,” VTDigger’s news podcast
- Government reporting — Riley Robinson for “The cans we kick: Vermont lawmakers requested 99 new reports this year”
- Human interest feature story — Erin Petenko for “Fox Market is Vermont’s 1st LGBTQ+ bar in 15 years. What took so long?”
- Racial, ethnic or gender issue coverage — Auditi Guha for “Vermont’s multicultural liaisons help create bridges between new immigrant families and schools”
- Social issues feature story — Riley Robinson for “‘What if something happens to me?’ Parents lobby Legislature to expand housing choices for Vermonters with developmental disabilities”
- General news photo — Glenn Russell for a photograph of University of Vermont students protesting the school’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations in April 2022
- Photo story — Glenn Russell for a series of photographs of the Champlain Valley Exposition in September 2021, after the pandemic led to the cancellation of the previous year’s fair.
The New England Newspaper and Press Association represents more than 450 news organizations throughout the six-state region. The “New England Better Newspaper Competition” covered work published from August 2021 through July 2022. VTDigger generally competed in a division that included other news services and digital news organizations.
“Congratulations to the news team for racking up these 11 awards,” said Sky Barsch, VTDigger’s CEO. “It is an honor to be recognized by our peers, and it’s a nice opportunity to take a moment to reflect on all the work that goes into the VTDigger’s stories, databases and photographs.”
VTDigger editor-in-chief Paul Heintz said he found it notable that the organization won awards in a variety of storytelling mediums, from audio to visual to the written word. “Each of these pieces tells an important, deeply reported story in an engaging manner,” Heintz said. “I’m particularly proud that several of our winning entries focused on underrepresented and marginalized communities — immigrants, members of the LGBTQ+ community, those with developmental disabilities and survivors of sexual misconduct.”
NENPA’s annual convention also featured a luncheon honoring this year’s recipients of the Yankee Quill Award, a lifetime achievement recognition. Among those honored with the award was VTDigger founder and editor-at-large Anne Galloway.