Maple Leaf Three-Peat Winner of Newspaper of the Year
The Geauga County Maple Leaf has been named “Newspaper of the Year” in the annual Osman C. Hooper Newspaper Contest for the third year in a row.
The Geauga County Maple Leaf has been named “Newspaper of the Year” in the annual Osman C. Hooper Newspaper Contest for the third year in a row.
Results of the contest, which recognizes the best weekly newspapers in Ohio, were announced during the Ohio News Media Association convention held in Columbus on Feb. 7-8.
Competing weekly newspapers were divided into four divisions based on circulation information. This year, 53 newspapers submitted entries, 17 of them collegiate papers.
Hooper judges comprise professors of major journalism schools in Ohio, including Bowling Green State University, Kent State University, Ohio University, The Ohio State University and Miami University.
The Maple Leaf competed in Division B against nine other weekly newspapers, including the Geauga Times Courier.
The Maple Leaf took home 13 awards in 18 categories, surpassing last year’s total of 12 awards.
Winning entries were recognized in the following categories: News Coverage, Best Local Feature, Best Editorial, Sports Coverage, Best Sports Feature, Newspaper Design, Page Design, Advertising, Feature Photo, Community Awareness and Best Website.
It was the fourth time in six years the Maple Leaf has been recognized as the best newspaper in its class in Ohio.
News Editor Cassandra Shofar won 1stplace for her local feature on Michael Rear, 33, who tragically passed away in 2016 from a heroin overdose.
“A very powerful and well-written story that draws out all the emotions of a family struggling with addiction — fear, confusion, hope and grief. Personalizing this through the eyes of a prominent local family shows the breadth of our opioid crisis,” the judge wrote.
“I feel very humbled and grateful for the award,” Shofar said. “This young man’s story, told through the eyes of parents who absolutely loved and adored him, affected me on levels I cannot entirely express. It was an honor to tell his story in the hopes it helps save another person’s life and brings comfort to other families struggling with this crisis.”
Sports Editor Jamie Ward took first and third places for his sports features on longtime basketball coach Cheryl Rye and Chardon championship athlete Trevor Piszko, respectively.
“Nice summary of a career through stats and statements. It’s not easy to encapsulate 2 decades-plus in a single article, but this does a good job conveying her priorities and accomplishments,” the judge said regarding the feature on Rye.
Comments on the Piszko feature included: “Great job portraying the off-the-court motivations and emotions behind the event.”
Production Supervisor Pam Molnar took first place in Newspaper Design.
“Lovely design with strong uses of images, well-designed headlines and a good use of white space. A truly lovely effort,” the judge commented.
Graphic Designer Karen Kaplan took first place in Advertising.
“Each advertisement was clean, elegant and visually inviting. All felt like they belonged on a magazine spread. Each was strongly visual and exhibited strong type choices and hierarchies,” the judge said.
Shofar, reporter Ann Wishart and Molnar were all credited with their third-place win for their series on the drug and opioid epidemic in Geauga County.
“I am so very proud of our Maple Leaf team and fellow writer Ann Wishart,” Shofar said. “We really worked hard on this series, brainstorming ideas, trying to come up with angles that haven’t already been written over and over again on this topic. I feel we did a good job balancing all of the statistics with personal stories to invite readers into the shoes of people affected by addiction as well as educate them on the bigger picture of the epidemic and its impact on Geauga County and the state of Ohio.”
Shofar also noted the Maple Leaf website was honored once again, winning second place.
“Nice use of multi-media content — embedding video on some of the pages. The menu structure is straightforward and it makes it very easy to navigate the website. Overall, it’s a good website,” the judge said.
“I am so proud to be a part of our Maple Leaf family,” Shofar said. “We have a great group of dedicated writers, editors and designers who truly work wonderfully together to put these papers out every week. And we have an incredibly supportive community, including our generous advertisers, who help us bring quality news to our readers.”
John Karlovec, of Karlovec Media Group, which owns the Maple Leaf as well as the bi-monthly Chesterland News and monthly Kirtland Chronicle, said every year, he is inspired by the quality of reporting, photography and design weekly newspapers across the state provide their readers.
“The ONMA convention offers a great opportunity to meet publishers and editors of weekly newspapers throughout Ohio and to discuss industry trends and best practices,” he said. “We always come home loaded with ideas to improve our readers’ experience, both in print and online.”
A strong local newspaper is critical to building an informed community and the Maple Leaf reigns supreme in the delivery of local news to Geauga County.
“Light news coverage will almost certainly lead to light readership, an uninformed citizenry and a discouragement of civic engagement,” Karlovec added. “Our goal is to keep our pages loaded with content of interest to our readers — local news, crime, high school football teams, school boards — and to be paid appropriately by those who find us useful, whether they are reading our newspaper in their hands or on our website. Being recognized as the best newspaper in our class is a testament to our staff and pursuit of that goal.”
To subscribe to the Maple Leaf, call 440-285-2013 or visit www.geaugamapleleaf.com.
