Inter Lake wins awards in state newspaper contest

The Daily Inter Lake won 16 awards in 2019 Better Newspaper Contest. The awards were presented at the annual Montana Newspaper Association convention held over the weekend in Big Sky.

The Inter Lake competes in Division 5 against the state’s largest daily newspapers. The contest was judged by the Michigan Press Association.

News Editor Lynnette Hintze placed first in the breaking news category for her coverage of the 11th-hour effort to save the historic Frank Lloyd Wright building in downtown Whitefish that was demolished overnight on Jan. 10, 2018. Hintze also picked up a second-place award for feature writing.

Photographer Casey Kreider’s video on the effort to remove non-native fish from Flathead Lake placed first among all daily newspapers.

Reporter Mackenzie Reiss took home top honors in the sports feature category for her story on Bigfork High School student athlete Rakiah Grende’s return to the basketball court after being diagnosed with Stage III cancer.

Managing Editor Matt Baldwin placed first and third in page design for his layouts featured in the Montana Life section and third for front-page design.

The Daily Inter Lake composing department had a clean sweep in the sponsor advertisement category. Graphic designer Shawn Withrow placed first for his design for Whitefish Skijoring. He also placed third in the category, while designer Brenda Ritter placed second.

Withrow also took first and second place in the best newspaper promotional ad category, and third for best marketing campaign.

Reporter Evan McCullers placed third for best sports story; assistant editor Kianna Gardner placed third for best video; and digital sales team members Kelley Winkler and Anita Emerson placed second for best online ad.

Here are the top awards won by the weekly newspapers owned by Hagadone Montana:

The Whitefish Pilot claimed the General Excellence award as the best weekly newspaper in Division 2. The newspaper won first place awards for best website, best portrait photograph, best graphic, best sports page design, best headlines, best sports story and best promotional ad.

The Hungry Horse News won first place awards for best page layout, best sports feature, best front page, best promotional ad, best sports photo, and best news photo. Editor Chris Peterson took home the Mark Henckel Outdoor Writing Award in Division 2 for a feature on Glacier National Park.

Mineral Independent reporter Kathleen Woodford also won the Mark Henckel Outdoor Writing Award for Division 1.

Lake County Leader sports editor Jason Blasco won an award in division 1 for best graphic.

The Western News in Libby earned first and second place awards in Division 2 for investigative reporting and placed third in the news photo category.