DeSales Media Group, the parent company of The Tablet and NET-TV, was honored with 15 awards at this year’s Catholic Media Convention held in Buffalo.
The Tablet received eight honors; Nuestra Voz, the diocesan Spanish monthly, garnered six, and the NET-TV show Reel Faith picked up a Gabriel Award.
In addition, Tablet reporter Maria-Pia Negro Chin won two awards for work she did before joining The Tablet’s staff.
Former Tablet Associate Publisher Matthew Schiller was sworn in as the newly elected President of the Catholic Press Association during the Buffalo convention. Schiller, currently the business manager of Catholic New York, was raised in Our Lady of the Cenacle parish, Richmond Hill, and attended Archbishop Molloy H.S., Briarwood, and St. John’s University.
The Tablet received second place for Best Coverage of Local Politics for a package about the push for education tax credits in New York written by Editor Ed Wilkinson and reporter Antonina Zielinska.
The judges said, “These stories are well written and convey the urgency of the situation as well as the intensity of those lobbying the issue.”
The Tablet also received third place for the Best Editorial Page. Judges cited “a two-page editorial spread includes letters as well as editorials covering topics of both local and national interest. Most editorials include a call to action for readers.”
Third-place awards also went to individual editorials, “Get It Done, Gov!” and “Francis Economics.”
For “Get It Done, Gov!” the judges enjoyed the “descriptive language” and the “powerful argument for support of tax credits for parochial schools.”
In “Francis Economics,” the judges commented that “the contents of this editorial are very threatening to many in and outside the Church because the author as well as the Pope challenges business as usual.”
An honorable mention also was given to a Tablet editorial titled “No Guts in Albany,” which the judges called “a persuasive argument to respond to the inaction of the legislature.”
Three Tablet ads also took prizes. First place was captured by designer Israel Ochoa for an online ad for Currents, the nightly news program of NET-TV.
A centerfold ad for Currents, also designed by Ochoa, was awarded second place. Judges praised it as “well-designed… clean, and visually appealing. Excellent use of layout, color, and typography.”
Second place for best ad copywriting again went to Ochoa for “Catholic Foundation for Brooklyn and Queens.” Judges said, “Well done. You can’t ignore this headline. Great headline and selection of font and color for that headline. Integration of multiple images in the headline is very clever design and enhances the headline message.
Nuestra Voz won awards for:
Best News Writing, third place, by Marietha Gongora
Best Column, first place, David Bisono; second place, Cruz Teresa Rosero
Best Personality Profile, first place, by Dario Lopez Capera
Best Coverage of Local Issue, second place, Nancy Agosto
Best Coverage of Vocations to priesthood, religious life or diaconate, third place, Dario Lopez Capera
Maria-Pia Negro Chin was part of a team of reporters from the Arlington Catholic Herald that won second place for best explanation of the Church’s position on marriage.
She also received third place for Best Reporting on Special Age Group: Children and Teens Under 18.
She also was one of four winners of Catholic Relief Service (CRS)’s Egan Journalism Fellowship, which recognizes exceptional journalists who have demonstrated excellence in their reporting for Catholic media in the United States.
The selected fellows will travel with CRS to the Philippines for one week in October to report on the aftermath of the 2013 Super Typhoon Haiyan and to witness firsthand the work of CRS.
In awarding a Gabriel Award to Reel Faith, the Catholic Academy of Communication called it “a good production that makes an impact by bringing the Catholic perspective to the culture, i.e., the movies.”
“Shades of Siskel and Ebert,’ said one judge.
