Independent wins 15 awards
in AP statewide contest

By Independent staff

ALBUQUERQUE — The Gallup Independent captured 15 awards , including six first-place plaques, Saturday night during The Associated Press Managing Editors Better Newspaper awards ceremony. The awards banquet was held at the Holiday Inn and Suites in Albuquerque.

Independent photographers carried the night as photojournalist Brian Leddy brought home six awards and photojournalist Daniel Zollinger captured five. Also winning first place honors were reporters Kathy Helms and Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola.

First place went to Hardin-Burrola in continuing news coverage for her reporting on Bishop Donald Pelotte, Helms in beat reporting for her series on post-71 uranium miners in Grants, Leddy for his feature photo of a child holding an American flag, news photo of a cowboy smoking and multimedia storytelling of the PRCA Rodeo in Window Rock. Zollinger rounded out the first-place honors for his graphic illustration of how Gallup reacted to the Japanese Relocation Act during World War II.

“It has been my belief that the Independent has among the top three photographers in the state and these awards just reinforce that notion,” Managing Editor Barry Heifner said of the accolades. “But the first-place awards won by Kathy Helms and Elizabeth Hardin-Barrola are indicative of the quality of writing and reporting at this newspaper. The improvement during the past year has been outstanding, however there is still much work to do and room for growth and to broaden the scope of our writing.”

Second-place honors went to Sports Editor Alan Arthur for sports feature writing; Leddy for sports photo and general news photo; and Zollinger for feature photo. Third-place awards went to Leddy for multimedia storytelling; Zollinger for general news photo and spot news photo; and Heifner for headline writing. Zollinger rounded out the awards with an honorable mention for spot news photography.

The Independent competes in Division 2 of the APME. The Santa Fe New Mexican, a Division 1 newspaper, took top honors and captured the general excellence award.