MONROE - It might be a reporter's name on the award, but it's never just one person who actually contributes to the award.
Last Friday I was fortunate enough to attend the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Better Newspaper Contest awards banquet to pick up a first-place award for a series I did about the justice center and the court system in Green County.
The story took several weeks to organize, interview people and research information, write, edit, re-write, edit some more and finally place in the paper over a three-day period.
It was difficult at times because just when I thought the stories were ready to go onto the page, a couple more questions would come up and I'd have more to do.
I may have received the award, but there were a lot of people involved with the process.
The other reporters in the newsroom took on extra stories to free up time for me to concentrate on the series; the news editor kept the story in front of me as much as he could and gave me suggestions and ideas; and the editor spent countless hours reading, re-reading and making changes and offering advice to make the stories flow together. He and I also sat down in his office to discuss what kind of photos we needed for the story.
We all knew this was going to be a big story.
But my name is the only one that appears on the award and it's a shame, because so much time from so many other people went into the stories.
n n n
It was interesting to see how excited the weekly newspaper people got when they won awards at the WNA convention.
Having worked for a weekly newspaper, I can remember how fun it was to work on a "big" story.
Many of the weekly papers do a great job covering their communities and bringing a different perspective on stories that the bigger papers sometimes can't cover.
So much happens in a small town no one paper can cover it all.
- Brian Gray is a reporter for the Monroe Times.
He can be reached at
bgray@themonroetimes.com
Last Friday I was fortunate enough to attend the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Better Newspaper Contest awards banquet to pick up a first-place award for a series I did about the justice center and the court system in Green County.
The story took several weeks to organize, interview people and research information, write, edit, re-write, edit some more and finally place in the paper over a three-day period.
It was difficult at times because just when I thought the stories were ready to go onto the page, a couple more questions would come up and I'd have more to do.
I may have received the award, but there were a lot of people involved with the process.
The other reporters in the newsroom took on extra stories to free up time for me to concentrate on the series; the news editor kept the story in front of me as much as he could and gave me suggestions and ideas; and the editor spent countless hours reading, re-reading and making changes and offering advice to make the stories flow together. He and I also sat down in his office to discuss what kind of photos we needed for the story.
We all knew this was going to be a big story.
But my name is the only one that appears on the award and it's a shame, because so much time from so many other people went into the stories.
n n n
It was interesting to see how excited the weekly newspaper people got when they won awards at the WNA convention.
Having worked for a weekly newspaper, I can remember how fun it was to work on a "big" story.
Many of the weekly papers do a great job covering their communities and bringing a different perspective on stories that the bigger papers sometimes can't cover.
So much happens in a small town no one paper can cover it all.
- Brian Gray is a reporter for the Monroe Times.
He can be reached at
bgray@themonroetimes.com