Leader stacks up 19 statewide newspaper awards

The Lake County Leader raked in 19 awards at the Montana Newspaper Association’s 139th annual convention and awards banquet, held Saturday in Kalispell – including 10 first place awards in Division I for writing, layout and photography.

“The beauty of community newspapers is that we can’t do what we do without the community, who support us in so many ways, from subscribing, to advertising, to story ideas, to taking terrific photos of local sporting events,” said editor Kristi Niemeyer.

She noted that the crop of awards included recognition for former Leader editor and sports writer Dixie Knutson, who was coaxed out of retirement for nine months in 2023 to help the current editor relearn how to design pages; county commissioner and local historian Gale Decker for his hard work compiling Lake County history for last year’s Centennial celebration; and St. Ignatius resident Christa Umphrey for one of her top-notch photos of the Mission Bulldogs.

Niemeyer also praised the Leader sales team. “Without those hard-working ad reps, we wouldn’t have a paper to fill,” she said.

Among the awards:

Niemeyer took top honors in Best Education Coverage for her profiles of high school students Leina Ulutoa, Natalie Helser and Cedar Hunt; Best Continuing News Coverage, in collaboration with Lake County Commissioner Gale Decker, for their coverage of Lake County’s Centennial; Best Column Writing for “A Legacy of Pickles, Pies and Pluck” (and third place in that same category for “Miss Minnie, Zip and the Last Breakfast”); Best Editorial Writing for editorials that opined on political shenanigans, water rights and the lake level.

She also took firsts for Best Breaking News Photo and Best Portrait Photo (and a third in that category too), and third for Best Feature Photo.

Reporter Berl Tiskus earned first place awards for Best News Story for her story titled “Because Mika Matters” and Best Sports Feature Story for her story about Arlee barrel racer Graysen O’Connor titled “Sky’s the Limit.” She also earned the Mark Henckel Outdoor Writing Award for her coverage of Pedal to Plate (Niemeyer took third in that category for her story about “The Last Best Polar Plunge”).

Dixie Knutson claimed first and second place in the category of Best Sports Page Layout and Design, and she and Niemeyer took second for Best Page Layout and Design.

Contributor Christa Umphrey placed third for Best Sports Photo; and Tiskus took third for Best General News Photo.

The Leader advertising staff placed second in the Best Sponsor Page category.

Hagadone Media Montana’s Daily Inter Lake was named the best daily newspaper in the state, earning the coveted Sam Gilluly and General Excellence awards. The paper’s news and advertising staff accrued a grand total of 32 awards.

Hagadone weeklies the Hungry Horse News and Whitefish Pilot also reeled in several first-place awards for news and advertising.

The Thomas Dimsdale Award for the best Montana weekly newspaper went to the Choteau Acantha. The Flathead Beacon won top honors for best online news outlet.

This year’s contest was judged by the Utah Press Association.

At the convention on Friday evening, the Montana Newspaper Association recognized a slate of journalism stalwarts.

Dave Worstell and Dennis Swibold received Master Editor/Publisher awards. Worstell is publisher/ president for Lee Enterprises’ Montana newspapers. Swibold was a journalism professor at the University of Montana for 36 years before retiring this year.

The late Frank Datta, owner of the Wibaux Pioneer, was inducted into the association’s Hall of Fame, and longtime Livingston Enterprise editor Dwight Harriman was given the Dick Crockford Distinguished Service Award.