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The Suffolk Times wins NY Newspaper of the Year award

After winning nine first-place awards between editorial coverage and advertising, The Suffolk Times captured the 2017 Newspaper of the Year award in the New York Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest. It’s the first time The Suffolk Times has won the honor since the award was created in 2013.

For the fifth consecutive year, Times Review Media Group, publishers of The Suffolk Times, Riverhead News-Review and Shelter Island Reporter, took home more awards than any other newspaper group in the contest. The papers won 48 awards and combined to earn 465 points in the contest — 165 more than the second-best newspaper chain.

The awards were presented Friday and Saturday in Albany at NYPA’s annual spring conference.

The Suffolk Times’ investigation into the 1966 disappearance of a Cutchogue woman, called “Gone,” won first place for the Thomas G. Butson Award for In-Depth Reporting. The judges wrote: “Not only is this the most compelling entry submitted, it also shows the best design work … The staff created an excellent report. It’s a job very well done.”

The investigation helped lead to the discovery of skeletal remains last month that were confirmed through DNA testing to be those of the missing woman, Louise Pietrewicz.

The story, written by Steve Wick and Grant Parpan, also won first place for Best Feature Story and the accompanying documentary video, which included the work of Krysten Massa, won first place for Best Use of Video.


Read some of our winning stories

Special Report: Investigation sheds light on 1966 disappearance of Louise Pietrewicz

The story of Bob Jester: Over a year after accident, he fights to walk again

North Fork residents share their stories of tick-borne illness


The paper won first place for Coverage of Health, Healthcare and Science based on a submission of five articles by staff members Kelly Zegers, Nicole Smith, Joe Werkmeister, Paul Squire and Ms. Massa. The judges wrote: “Unlike many stories that focus on comments from officials, I think it was terrific that the stories featured real residents who suffered from diseases, to overcome a terrible accident injury or volunteered for hours at their area hospital.”

The paper also won first place for Coverage of Crime, Police, Courts, an entry that also included the story “Gone.” Mr. Parpan,
Mr. Wick, Ms. Zegers and Taylor K. Vecsey all contributed to the winning entries.

“None of these stories was run of the mill,” the judges’ comment said.

In addition, The Suffolk Times won first place for Editorials and Magazine. The winning magazine entry was the newly redesigned northforker magazine, which was led by Vera Chinese, Eric Hod and Mr. Parpan.

The judges wrote: “What we liked most about this 108-page, self-cover, perfect-bound magazine — besides its beautiful layout and photography and quality content and writing — was that it was local, local, local from beginning to end.”

On the advertising side, The Suffolk Times won first place for Best Online Dynamic and Best Large Space Ad.

The Suffolk Times finished as a runner-up for the Stuart C. Dorman Award, which goes to the paper that earns the most contest points in editorial categories. That honor went to the Sag Harbor Express for the third consecutive year.

The Riverhead News-Review finished third in contest points behind The Suffolk Times.

Members of the Michigan Press Association judged the contest entries in January, combing through a total of 2,783 entries.

Caption: Times Review staffers accept the award for Newspaper of the Year.