News-Review receives recognition from Press Club of LI, National Newspaper Association

The Riverhead News-Review was awarded second place for Best Community Weekly Newspaper by the Press Club of Long Island June 6. And the paper also earned honorable mention for general excellence in the National Newspaper Association’s Better Newspaper Contest, which was announced last week. 

The judges for the NNA general excellence award wrote of the News-Review: “This is a clean, clear community-centered newspaper that shows staff thinking about what readers want and need to know. Subscribers are being well-served.”

The News-Review had won first place in the category the prior two years.

The News-Review also earned third place for Best Local News Coverage. One of the winning editions featured coverage of Bishop McGann-Mercy’s sudden closure. “Solid hard-working staff covers all the bases,” the judges wrote.

Editor Joe Werkmeister and reporter Tim Gannon also earned second place honors for Best Breaking News Story for coverage of Tech. Sgt. Dashan Briggs’s death in Iraq in March 2018. “This is a well written profile of a young man who died fighting for his country,” the judges wrote.

The PCLI media awards dinner was held at the Watermill in Smithtown. First-place honors for Best Community Weekly went to the East Hampton Press.

Three journalists were inducted into the Long Island Journalism Hall of Fame during the ceremony: Pat Milton of CBS News/Associated Press, Carol Silva of News 12 Long Island and J. Conrad Williams Jr. of Newsday. Ms. Silva, a longtime television anchor, announced her retirement earlier that day.

Ms. Milton joined CBS News in 2008 and is a senior producer of the CBS News Investigative Unit. Mr. Williams is an award-winning photographer who has worked for Newsday for more than 30 years.