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For the second time in three years, The Express News Group took home more awards than any other media outlet in the New York Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest.
The awards were presented during the association’s annual spring conference in Saratoga Springs on March 20 and 21. Judging was by the Missouri Press Association.
The Express News Group swept the prestigious Past Presidents’ Award for General Excellence category, which included every member newspaper in the state, regardless of circulation. The Eastern Edition of The Southampton Press won first place, the Western Edition of The Southampton Press took second place and The Sag Harbor Express won third place.
The East Hampton Press took home the most advertising points in the contest, winning the John J. Evans Award for Advertising Excellence.
In addition to sweeping the General Excellence category, the company also won the top three awards for Advertising Excellence, along with top honors for best multi-advertiser pages for a Holiday Book layout featuring the Greenport Business Improvement District.
Judges said The Express News Group advertising was “clearly treated as valuable content. Attentive, attractive and well written.”
Production managers Sara Mannino Kent and Kerri Cunningham led their team to first place in Overall Design Excellence for The Southampton Press Eastern Edition, which also won Best Front Page.
The Express News Group won a total of 590 contest points, beating out its closest competitor, Schneps Media, the owner of Dan’s Papers, by 150 points.
“Impressive from start to finish,” judges said of The Southampton Press in comments about the General Excellence award. “Neat, clean presentation. News coverage was solid. Layout and design throughout the editions were strong. Opinion pages were well done. Arts and entertainment coverage, as well as design of those pages, especially good. Advertising content was strong, especially great real estate advertising. Finally, print quality was outstanding.”
The East Hampton Press won a first-place award for Photographic Excellence, a nod to the work of Photo Editor Dana Shaw and freelancers Ron Esposito, Kyril Bromley, Doug Kuntz, Marianne Barnett and Lori Hawkins, among others.
Esposito won two individual first-place awards for sports action photos, Shaw and Bromley won awards for feature photos, and Hawkins won first place for best picture story.
Another standout award was first place for Community Leadership for a package of stories and a series of editorials about the Stony Brook Southampton College campus, and a subsequent Express Sessions event that was attended by a bus full of Stony Brook administrators — a moment that some local leaders pointed to as the beginning of an important movement to rehabilitate the campus.
“What sets this entry apart is the follow-through from news to editorial content,” the judges said. “This paper claims its power to influence as a news source and tastemaker — and used it to accomplish something positive for their community.”
The company also took home a second-place award for Solutions Journalism, as judges pointed to its “Helping Hand” special section and Express Sessions event about the local nonprofit industry. The section also won an award for Best Special Section on Newsprint, with judges saying it was a “great concept” with “great execution, great photography and great page layouts.”
“Winning awards for Community Leadership and Solutions Journalism means a lot to us,” said Co-Publishers Gavin and Kathryn Menu, who own The Express News Group. “While news reporting is the core of our mission, connecting and supporting our communities is our greatest passion. We live here, and so does our staff. Our readers and advertisers are not just clients — they’re also our friends and neighbors. We share these awards with them.”
Sports Editor Drew Budd and writers Desirée Keegan and Cailin Riley, along with designer Sara Mannino Kent, led the charge in sweeping the top three awards for Sports Coverage — in fact, all four editions were included, as two tied for second place. Judges said about The East Hampton Press, which won first place, “These editions were spectacular in coverage … Fantastic coverage all around.”
Keegan also won two first-place awards for Sports Feature stories.
Deputy Managing Editor Brendan J. O’Reilly and freelancer Joseph Finora won a first-place award in the Best Real Estate/Home Section category for work on the company’s annual Pulse special section.
The Summer Book edition of The Express Magazine, edited by Kathryn G. Menu and designed by Bryan Boyhan, won first place for Best Special Section on Glossy. The magazine’s Festival issue won first place for Best Themed Issue, with judges saying they were “so glad you invited your readers into this lovely space.”
A first-place award for Best Podcast was shared with the team at WLIW-FM, which partnered with The Express News Group on “First District Matters,” a series of podcasts about last year’s congressional race between U.S. Representative Nick LaLota and challenger John Avlon.
The Albany Times Union won the Newspaper of the Year Award and the Stuart C. Dorman Award for Editorial Excellence. The East Hampton Star, RiverheadLocal.com, Dan’s Papers and the Times Review Media Group were other local companies that won awards in the competition.
“It’s always nice to hear from your peers that you’re doing something right, in the midst of such a great region for community journalism that is the East End,” said Joseph Shaw, the executive editor of The Express News Group. “I’m proud of our entire staff — everyone shared in the awards, and I think that’s appropriate. It’s a great team.”
Staff Writer on Mar 23, 2025