Williams honored with four awards

Photo by Chad Koenen
The Frazee-Vergas Forum won six awards at the 157th annual Minnesota Newspaper Association Convention last week. The Forum won first place in the category of Use of Photography as a Whole and editor Robert Williams won first place in the category of Human Interest Story – Personality Feature/Profile.

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The Frazee-Vergas Forum received six awards, including first place in Use of Photography as a Whole and third place in Typography and Design during the annual Minnesota Newspaper Association Better Newspaper Contest. The Forum was recognized along with other newspapers from across the state at the annual Minnesota Newspaper Association meeting from January 31-February 2 at the Minneapolis Marriott Northwest hotel in Brooklyn Center.

In addition to the two newspaper awards, Forum Editor Robert Williams received four awards individually. Williams received first place in the category of human interest personality/profile, second place in the category of columnist, second place in the category of news photo and second place in the category of human interest news feature. 

  A total of 4,095 entries were received in a variety of categories and circulation sizes for the annual contest. The Forum competes in the category of weekly newspaper with a circulation between 1,001-1,500. 

In addition to the Forum, the New York Mills Dispatch received a pair of awards in Typography and Design, as well as Use of Photography as a Whole. 

The Citizen’s Advocate in Henning, which also competes in the weekly newspaper with a circulation under 1,000 category, received 14 total awards including first place in General Excellence, as well as second place in Typography and Design, third place in Editorial Page as a Whole, second place in Sports Reporting and third place in Use of Photography as a Whole.

Co-publisher Chad Koenen received nine awards individually for work he completed for the Citizen’s Advocate including: first place in arts and entertainment, first and second place in business profile feature store, second place in business story, second place in best columnist, first place in portrait or personality photography, third place in best news photo, second place in best sports photo and second place in best sports feature.

After serving as the president of the Minnesota Newspaper Association for the past two years, Frazee-Vergas Forum co-publisher Chad Koenen was named as the immediate past president of the nine person Minnesota Newspaper Association Board of Directors. He will serve in that capacity for one year.