Pahrump Valley Times takes home honors at Nevada Press Association awards

The Pahrump Valley Times won 35 awards, including being honored with the award for “General Excellence,” during the 2019 annual Nevada Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest banquet in Ely — the second year in a row the newspaper has been honored with the award.

The Times was also recognized with first place in general online excellence for its pvtimes.com website.

Overall, the Pahrump Valley Times newsroom received first-place awards in 14 separate categories: community service, digital sports storytelling, news photo coverage, feature writing, digital entertainment or feature storytelling, general excellence, general online excellence, news feature story, digital business news, special section, digital breaking news, sports column, sports spot news story and Page 1 design.

Advertising first-place finishes were in the black and white ad and print ad categories.

The awards — including “General Excellence” marking the publication as the best newspaper statewide in the intermediate category — were announced at a banquet on Saturday at the Bristlecone Convention Center in Ely.

Staff members recognized included reporters Jeffrey Meehan, Robin Hebrock and Selwyn Harris, editor David Jacobs, publisher Noah Cusick, Sports Editor Tom Rysinski, page designer Jessica Beaudoin, lead graphic designer Heather Ruth, graphic designer Delores Sarantes and copy editor Pam Christie.

The 35 awards won by the Pahrump Valley Times on Saturday is up from 22 in 2018 and 10 in 2017.

Staff top honors

Hebrock, who joined the Times’ staff in early 2018, won first place for her story “Suicide Prevention in Rural Nevada.” Hebrock previously wrote for The Mirror, which ceased operations in Nye County at the end of 2017.

Rysinski, the sports editor since February 2018, was recognized for his four first-place awards in Ely.

Meehan was recognized for his first-place win in the digital business news category. He also shared a first-place win for his work on coverage of the death of brothel owner Dennis Hof: “Nevada Brothel Owner Dennis Hof has died.” Harris and Jacobs were also recognized for the first place win in the digital breaking news story category.

Harris also won two other first-place awards for Pahrump in the feature writing and digital entertainment or feature storytelling category.

Ruth, Beaudoin and Sarantes won first place awards at the Ely banquet, as did photographer Horace Langford Jr. Langford won in the news photo coverage category for his work on the “Powwow Celebrates history, Culture in Pahrump.”

The Pahrump Valley Times also captured eight second-place awards and 11 third-place awards on Saturday. Those included second-place awards for both columnist Tim Burke and writer Robin Flinchum.

In 2016, the Pahrump Valley Times won general excellence for the first time in its history under the publication’s previous editor, Arnold Knightly. The Times won its second “General Excellence” award in the 2018 Better Newspaper Contest in Las Vegas under the publication’s current editor, Jacobs.

The Tonopah Times-Bonanza &Goldfield News, which shares newsroom staff with the Pahrump Valley Times, was recognized with 19 awards at the banquet in Ely. A highlight was seven first-place awards for Tonopah staff members.

A complete list of winners and more details are available on the Nevada Press Association’s website or at bit.ly/2mjiEaM on the web.

At the Ely event, longtime Nevada journalist Dennis Myers was recognized for his work in the field, and a moment of silence was held. Myers, a freelance columnist for the Pahrump Valley Times and Times-Bonanza, died following a stroke at the end of August. He was 70 years old.

Contact reporter Jeffrey Meehan at jmeehan@pvtimes.com, on Twitter @MeehanLv