Transcript takes first prize for second year in row
By Roberta Tuttle
Managing Editor
For the second year in a row, The Catholic Transcript earned the first-place award in general excellence among monthly newspapers in the New England Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest.

In the writing categories, staff reporter Mary Chalupsky received an award for a human-interest feature story.

The NEPA contest attracted 5,500 entries from 350 daily, weekly, bimonthly and monthly newspapers in a variety of writing, photography, online, advertising, design and other categories. The awards were announced at an annual banquet Feb. 9 honoring excellence in newspapers.

“Catholics in the Hartford area have an excellent paper to guide them,” the judges said of The Catholic Transcript last year. “The Transcript is newsy, well-written and vibrant. It covers a great deal of territory. It’s a terrific publication.”

This year the judges called The Transcript “a substantial, professional publication dealing with hard news stories as well as interesting features.” They said stories engage readers from the first sentences whether they are summaries or anecdotes, and they complimented the paper for its extensive youth pages.

Ms. Chalupsky captured a third-place award among biweekly and monthly publications for a feature story about Michael Mele of Hamden, a member of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish.

“Chalupsky succeeds in capturing the active, colorful life of 100-year-old Mike Mele,” the judges wrote, adding that the story’s pace matched Mr. Mele’s “zeal for moving with fervor.” The Transcript was the only religious newspaper that garnered awards this year.

Msgr. David Q. Liptak, executive editor of the newspaper, said of the award: “A prestigious general excellence award from the New England Press Association is clearly meant for each person who collaborates in producing The Catholic Transcript, in which we all take pride. The Transcript reflects individual excellence in various tasks.

“We are all indebted to our publisher, Archbishop Henry J. Mansell, whose continuing, enthusiastic support of our ministry here, as well as his superb columns, constitutes a major reason for our general excellence.

“As executive editor, I am especially grateful to him, as well as to our managing editor, Roberta Tuttle; along with our assistant editor; features editor; reporters; columnists, correspondents; photographers; proofreaders; and, in a class by themselves, our graphic designers, for their painstaking, extraordinary contributions.

“Likewise, appreciation is due to our advertising representative, business manager and circulation supervisor for hard work well done. All are highly talented and committed experts in their fields.”

Msgr. Liptak made special note of Ms. Chalupsky’s award. “We all share in the joy experienced by reporter Mary Chalupsky for her award as a winner in the human interest feature story category.”

This year’s judges were from the American Press Institute in Reston, Va.

The New England Press Association, founded in 1950, promotes growth and excellence in New England newspapers through technology, networking, education and recognition among its members.

It has more than 525 member newspapers with a total of 9.8 million readers in the six-state region.

The annual convention in Boston, which concluded with the awards banquet, draws more than 1,000 newspaper professionals.