The Valley Independent Sentinel and its online affiliates, the New Haven Independent and the Branford Eagle, received nine awards in the 2010 Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists annual excellence in journalism contest.
The Valley Independent Sentinel received two first-place prizes — in the online feature and video storytelling categories.
The Sentinel also received a second place prize for breaking news coverage, a second place prize for general excellence and an honorable mention for breaking news coverage.
The Sentinel competed against other independent online-only newspapers, including the Patch.com sites in Fairfield County, the religion news site Creedible.com and Westportnow.com
All entries were judged by professional journalists outside of Connecticut.
The awards were presented at the annual dinner Thursday night at Fantasia in North Haven.
The following is a list of all winners in the independent web categories.
WEB INDEPENDENT : BREAKING NEWS COVERAGE
(1) The murder of Annie Le; newhavenindependent.org; Marcia Chambers; Melissa Bailey; Paul Bass;
Thomas MacMillan
(2) Praying for him at the morgue; valleyindependentsentinel; Eugene Driscoll
(H) Tragedy on Fifth Street; valleyindependentsentinel; Eugene Driscoll
WEB INDEPENDENT : GENERAL EXCELLENCE
(1) westportnow.com; westportnow.com; David Matlow; Gordon F. Joseloff
(2) Valley Independent Sentinel; valleyindependentsentinel; Eugene Driscoll; Jodie Mozdzer
(H) East Haven racial profiling claims; newhavenindependent.org; Thomas MacMillan
WEB INDEPENDENT : ONLINE FEATURE
(1) Generator tested: Neighbors concerned; valleyindependentsentinel; Jodie Mozdzer
(2) Recession slams middle class; branfordeagle.org; Sally E. Bahner
(H) The green thumb of Short Beach; branfordeagle.org; Diana Stricker
WEB INDEPENDENT : VIDEO STORYTELLING
(1) Ansonia church for sale, Memories not included; valleyindependentsentinel; Jodie Mozdzer
For a full list of print and broadcast winners, visit www.ctspj.org.
Congratulations! Hopefully you’ll still be here in the years to come because wasn’t your creation through a 2-year grant?
If your service ever does expire, you’ll be missed because you are providing coverage that otherwise would go unreported. Your paper is also providing a forum for town residents to express their concerns and issues that was previously unavailable.
Keep up the good work and I hope your around for a long time to come!
HURRAY to our friends at the Valley Independent! You have taken our community by storm and you’re EVERYWHERE! As an added bonus, you’re pleasant, friendly and genuinely interested in our local concerns. Congratulations on your well deserved recognition and blatant self promotion or not, thanks for sharing the news. Carla Sullivan
Congratulations >>
Ron