Mercury wins 7 journalism awards in statewide contest
The Mercury garnered seven journalism awards during this year’s Keystone Media Awards contest, which is overseen by the Pennsylvania News Media Association.
The awards recognized work published during 2020.
The sports department’s coverage of the boys basketball team at Methacton High School winning its third consecutive Pioneer Athletic Conference championship won first place in the “sports breaking news/ event coverage” category.
Named as winners were Sports Editor Austin Hertzog and sportswriters Owen McCue and Rob Senior.
The other six Keystones were awarded to longtime Mercury staff writer Evan Brandt.
Brandt won first place in the “investigative reporting” category for his stories about how the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted Pennsylvania’s unequal education funding, and how it affected the Pottstown School district.
Brandt won four secondplace awards.
One was in the “ongoing coverage” category for his continued coverage of the probe into charges of racism in the New Hanover Police Department.
Another was in the “breaking news” category for his coverage of the fire that destroyed the Ashwood Apartments in North Coventry last summer. The third was in the “diversity” category, which recognizes a writer’s efforts to “inform on diverse elements in the community, encourage diversity awareness and reflect an ongoing effort to cover inclusive integration of diverse populations within your community,” according to the category description.
Stories in this category included a profile of Pottstown’s first female firefighter, coverage of an interfaith forum seeking ways to combat hate; how the pandemic was hitting minorities harder than other populations; and the Blacks Lives Matter marches in Pottstown.
The fourth second-place award was in the “feature story” category for an article on the 75th anniversary of the death of Anthony Marchione of Pottstown, who was the last service member to die in World War II.
Brandt’s sixth award as an honorable mention in the “news feature story” category about the difficulties faced by addicts forced to stay home during the early days of the pandemic and their inability to get regular treatment or attend meetings.
Former Mercury editor Nancy March also won an honorable mention for editorial writing for MediaNews Group for three editorials in the group of news sites that includes
The Mercury. The editorials focused on fair funding for schools and towns’ protests for racial justice.