Times awarded in newspaper contest
The Trempealeau County Times was again awarded in the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation Better Newspaper Contest.
Times Managing Editor Andrew Dannehy received a second-place award for his column titled “Just Another Week.” Entries submitted were titled “Accountability For Social Media Behavior”, which was published on Sept. 2, 2020; “County Board Must Act Quickly”, published Nov. 25, 2020 and “Board’s Process Was Troubling”, published Jan. 6, 2021.
This is the seventh time Dannehy has been awarded in the contest.
Former Times employee Zac Bellman received a second-place award in the Localized National Story category for a story titled “Classrooms discuss events in D.C.”
For the award the anonymous judge commented: “It’s always a good idea to bring a national story down to the local level with classroom comments. The reporter did a nice job of getting good feedback on this one.”
Bellman also received a third-place award for his sports column, “The Whole Nine Yards.” The entries submitted included columns titled “Bucks Boycott Historic, Necessary”, published Sept. 2, 2020; “Referee Protections Are A Necessary Change”, published June 9, 2021 and “Farewell To The First Job I Ever Loved”, published July 21, 2021.
Bellman left the Times in July of 2021 to join Gannett/USA Today Network based out of Stevens Point. He has since been hired as a prep sports reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
His replacement on the Times staff was also honored in the WNA contest for work done with The Gazette, based in Janesville. Benjamin Pierce earned an honorable mention award in the Reporting on Local Education category for a story titled “Turning home…into homeroom”; “Breakfast with Bergum;” and “Former Milton School administrator sues school board member.”
The 2021 WNAF Better Newspaper Contest received 2,117 entries from 98 newspapers. Eligible entries were published between Sept. 1, 2020, and Aug. 31, 2021, and were judged by members of the West Virginia Press Association.
