Stop the presses! The Brooklyn Paper won a series of top honors today at the annual conference of the Independent Free Newspapers of America in Seattle, Washington.
The Paper walked away with three first place awards and is a finalist for the IFPA’s coveted Vic Jose Award for General Excellence. Here is a roll call of our copious honors:
• BrooklynPaper.com, the borough’s leading local news Web site, won for a design spearheaded by our Webmaster Sylvan Migdal and podcasts, news and arts content created by the entire staff.
• The Paper’s front page design, crafted by Señor Editor Vince DiMiceli, was honored as distinctive and crisp — specifically our March 15 cover featuring a killer view of Downtown Brooklyn and a great art feature about former Gov. Spitzer (remember him)?
• Our exceptionally modest editor, Gersh Kuntzman, won in the Original Writing / Personal Column category for his weekly Brooklyn Angle column. He was cited for columns in which he interviewed the New York Aquarium’s late, great “self-loving” walrus Ayveq, downed high-fiber cereal before using a “green toilet,” and drank a $3 cup of coffee. As you might imagine, smiling photo of Gersh was featured prominently in each column.
It’s the second major award for Kuntzman’s Brooklyn Angle. Earlier this year, he won first place from the Suburban Newspapers of America, the same group that named him “Editor of the Year” and awarded The Brooklyn Paper its “Newspaper of the Year” award.
“Obviously, I’m supposed to say I’m humbled by all these honors, but that would be uncharacteristic,” said Kuntzman. “But suffice it to say, I am appreciative and proud to be working with such an amazing group of people here.”
In addition, The Brooklyn Paper is one of three finalists for the Vic Jose Award for General Excellence. Attendees at the Seattle conference will select a winner this weekend, with The Paper competing in its division with the Nutfield News of Derry, N.H., and the Webster-Kirkwood Times of St. Louis, Mo.
The Paper also won third place for editorial writing, thanks to our March 22 opinion piece, “Judges out of order,” which criticized judges for parking in Columbus Park outside the state Supreme Court building in Downtown Brooklyn.
The Independent Free Newspapers of America is the leading organization representing publishers of independently owned, free circulation community newspapers throughout the United States and Canada.
