By Beth David, Editor
The Neighb News won an award at the New England Better Newspaper Competition banquet this weekend. Organized and judged by the New England Newspaper and Press Association, the banquet
Flanked by her lawyers, Joseph Cataldo (LEFT) and Cory Madera (RIGHT), Michelle Carter cries after being found Guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the suicide of Conrad Roy III in Taunton Juvenile Court on June 16, 2017. Photo by Glenn C.Silva/Fairhaven Neighborhood News. The photo won first place in the General News Photo category for weeklies under 6,000 circulation at the New England Newspaper Better Newspaper Competition awards banquet on 2/24/18.
was held on Saturday, 2/24, at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel. NENPA represents more than 450 daily, weekly and specialty newspapers in New England, and judged 3,000 entries for this year’s awards.
This year is the first time the Neighb News submitted an entry into the awards and the first photojournalism award for photographer Glenn C. Silva.
Mr. Silva won the first place award for a courtroom photograph of Michelle Carter on the day she was found guilty of manslaughter in the suicide death of Conrad Roy III.
The Neighb News was pool photographer that day in court, so the photo went out to the Associated Press and has been seen by millions of people around the world.
With only one camera allowed in the courtroom, it is unusual for a small weekly paper to be pool photographer in such a high profile case. And the Neighb News had to fight for its spot in the line-up.
In the end, we had two days as pool photographer in the trial, including the verdict day.
The photo shows Ms. Carter crying after being found guilty, flanked by her two attorneys.
“Excellent emotion!” commented the judges when choosing the photo.
The category was “General News Photo” for weekly newspapers with circulation less than 6,000.
Second place in our category went to Alyssa Stone, Old Colony Memorial, Plymouth, Mass.; third place went to David Sokol, Melrose Free Press, Melrose, Mass.
L-R: Neighb News editor Beth David and photographer Glenn C. Silva get a kick out of posing next to the Standard-Times award-winning Front Page, which features Mr. Silva’s award-winning photo of Michelle Carter after she was found guilty. Neighb News photo.
Other local papers also fared well at the awards banquet. Southcoast Media Group, which includes the Standard-Times and the Hathaway Weeklies, won 38 awards.
Peter Pereira won Photographer of the Year for the ninth time in 14 years, and four first place awards. The ST’s Aimee Chiavaroli won the 2017 Rookie of the Year award.
The Standard-Times also won first place for Front Page, which featured Mr. Silva’s photo.
And that just tickles us pink.
Although we have been publishing for 13 years, this is the first time the Neighb News has submitted anything to the competition. As editor, I must admit, it was lots of fun. This year, we will definitely submit more.
As for Mr. Silva, he has been riding the high from the minute we muscled our way into the pool line-up.
His photos and our timely delivery to the pool on the days of the court appearances proved that the littlest of weeklies can, indeed, do the job.
“I’m extremely pleased with the recognition of my work by others in my field. I knew when I was capturing these images that I was recording history. I had no idea I’d get an award for the photo,” said Mr. Silva. “When I first heard I had placed in the top 3 of my category and would be going to the event in Boston to see where I finished I was excited. When they listed the three nominees on the big screen and called my name as the winner I was all smiles. I had to just look and see my name on the screen and go ‘I did it!’ To me, it was like winning an Emmy or an Oscar.”
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Click here to download the entire 3/1/18 issue: 03-01-18 SpringBee
