Taos News named best small weekly in US for third year in a row
Newsroom wins more awards than last three years combined
Judges for the National Newspaper Association’s 2022 Better Newspaper Contest awarded the Taos News its top General Excellence award for non-daily newspapers with a circulation range of 6,000-9,999, and a total of 40 other staff and individual awards.
The paper’s newsroom won 24 awards — an eight-fold increase over the 2021 contest and more accolades than the department has won in this contest in the last three NNA contests combined.
Staff Photographer Nathan Burton won the most awards of any staff member in the news department with a total of six, notably winning first place for Video Journalism for “Making Guitars on Taos Mesa,” a short profile on Patch Rubin, a local guitar maker renowned for his handcrafted instruments. Other notable news awards included a first-place profile Tempo Editor Lynne Robinson wrote about local painter Mark Maggiori, a first-place editorial by Editor-in-Chief John Miller and another first in the open division for Best Public Notice Journalism for Rick Romancito, who was acknowledged for his coverage of a cloud-seeding operation proposed last year for Northern New Mexico.
The newspaper’s design department also had a strong showing, with former Creative Director Karin Eberhardt winning first and second place for infographics in daily and non-daily newspapers. Designer and Chief Paginator Paul Gutches took home a first place award for Best Special News section
for his work on last year’s edition of Land, Water, People, Time. The department also won first and second place awards for Best Front Page Design.
The Taos News advertising staff took home a total of 12 awards,
with six first place awards, including Best Restaurant Ad, Best Real Estate Ad and Best Newspaper Promotion. Business Manager Mary Chavez won second place for Best Public Notice Section, as well as third place for Best Classified
Section, which also credits former Senior Client Care Specialist Gabrielle Sanchez.
“I’m proud of our staff’s performance since we’re competing against hundreds of other media companies, including some of the largest weekly newspapers in
the nation,” Taos News Publisher Chris Baker said. “This recognition honors the hard work and determination of our talented journalists who are devoted to serving Taos and Northern New Mexico.”