MARCH 18, 2010 ISSUE
High Country Press Wins Three NC Press Association Awards
Webmaster Carroll, Entertainment Editor Oakes Honored for 2009 Work
Entertainment Editor Anna Oakes (left) and Webmaster Jamie Carroll are recipients of 2009 awards from the N.C. Press Association.
Just less than two months before its fifth birthday, High Country Press received word it had garnered new honors and accolades from the North Carolina Press Association (NCPA). Watauga and Avery County’s community newspaper won three awards in the 2009 NCPA Editorial and Photojournalism Contest—two for its website, www.highcountrypress.com, and one for general news reporting.
The awards were to be formally announced this Thursday, March 18, during NCPA’s Winter Institute at the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill.
Webmaster Jamie Carroll and HighCountryPress.com took home two awards—a first place honor for “Best Use of an Interactive Feature,” awarded for the website’s reader comment section, and a second place honor for “General Excellence Website.”
Entertainment Editor Anna Oakes received a second place award for “General News Reporting” for her story “Sonny’s Grill Closes After 54 Years.”
All three awards were won in Community Division C, which is the contest’s largest category and includes any newspaper in North Carolina that circulates more than 10,000 issues per week.
“These awards speak to the caliber of information available from our products—the newspaper, High Country Magazine and High Country Visitors Guide—that’s allowed our webmaster to use his skill and talent to present the information in a clear, interactive and understandable format for our readers,” said High Country Press Editor and Publisher Ken Ketchie. “An average of 1,000 people visit us on our website every day now, and it’s Jamie [Carroll’s] presentation of our product that’s enabled that to happen.
“It’s nice to see that the judges appreciate the straightforward and user-friendly content on our website—content that is not muddled with unnecessary bells and whistles,” Ketchie continued.
Carroll came on board in July 2008 and went straight to work changing the look and accessibility of the website.
“I cleaned it up quite a bit, making it readable, accessible, stylizing things and making it more visually pleasing,” said Carroll, who then began adding interactive features. “I think the strongest feature of the website is its clarity—it’s easy to navigate through the stories,” he continued.
“A big part of the future of the newspaper business is the internet. If you don’t have a good reputation [on the web] then you’re shooting yourself in the foot. As the years go on, news will become more and more internet driven, especially with the popularity of mobile devices,” said Carroll.
Buffalo Cove-native Oakes, who won three NCPA awards in 2007, joined the High Country Press team in October 2007 and had a personal connection to her award-winning story.
“[Writing the story] was emotional to begin with because one of my earliest memories of Blowing Rock was going with my family to eat at Sonny’s Grill,” remembered Oakes. “It was such a cool place to go—it had an old and genuine feel to it, and I was personally saddened to hear it was closing. Sonny’s son Tommy Klutz is well known and I know it tore him up when it had to close.”
Oakes felt it was important to tell the story of Sonny’s Grill shutting its doors forever.
“Community newspapers serve as the recorded history of the community,” said Oakes. “Like the title said, Sonny’s Grill was an institution in Blowing Rock.
“It closing was such a telling event because it showed how much Blowing Rock had changed from a small town that used to be bustling with workers on a daily basis to a town with an event-driven economy,” said Oakes. “Sonny’s Grill was a symbol of that change.”
High Country Press’ graphics team, comprised of Courtney Cooper, Michelle Bailey and Tim Salt,took home a second place award for newspaper appearance and design in last year’s competition. Now, both High Country Press’ newspaper and website have received honors for aesthetics.
High Country Press would also like to thank Mountain Times Publications for ranking High Country Magazine the second best magazine in the High Country—we even beat out Lowe’s Foods’ weekly circular.
To check out the award-winning website, click to www.highcountrypress.com or www.hcpress.com.
To read Oakes’ award-winning story, click to www.highcountrypress.com/weekly/2009/02-26-09/end_of_an_institution.htm.
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