By Barb Arland-Fye
The Catholic Messenger
The Catholic Messenger received four awards in the 2019 Catholic Press Awards competition. Results were announced June 21 during the Catholic Media Conference in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Judges awarded first place for “Best Front Page: Broadsheet” to Messenger staffers Anne Marie Amacher, Barb Arland-Fye and Lindsay Steele. The entry for this category, which encompasses all national and diocesan newspapers, required submission of three front pages published in three consecutive weeks. A judge said of The Catholic Messenger: “An appealing newspaper that I think would attract attention for the main story. Crisp layout, nice work.” The National Catholic Register, received second-place honors and the Pittsburgh Catholic, third place.
The other awards for The Catholic Messenger:
• First place. Best Editorial on a Local Issue — Weekly Diocesan Newspaper, circulation 25,000 or less, for an editorial titled “Support the Families,” by Barb Arland-Fye. A judge stated: “Using a poignant story of deportation, this author develops a compelling argument urging Catholic Christians to act in solidarity with good people who seek a good life for their families in the United States. The list of concrete recommendations closing the editorial offers something positive for anyone to adopt.”
• Second place. Best Reporting on the Celebration of a Sacrament — Weekly Diocesan Newspaper, circulation of 25,000 or less, for a story by Lindsay Steele titled “Corpus Christi, Sugar Creek’s Path of Memories.” A judge commented: “The article is a nice report on a Eucharistic tradition that binds a community across ages, with an emphasis on history. Good details. Good background. Good quotes.”
• Honorable mention. Best Coverage of Pro-life Issues (this category encompasses all national and diocesan newspapers). Barb Arland-Fye and Anne Marie Amacher submitted three stories for this category: “A Night to Shine” (Feb. 15, 2018); “The Miracle on Happy Joe Drive” (Oct. 11, 2018); and “Women share stories at life dinner” (Nov. 1, 2018). First place award in that category went to Catholic News Agency, second place to Arkansas Catholic, and third place to National Catholic Register. An honorable mention also went to Texas Catholic Herald.
The Catholic Messenger is a member of The Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada, which has 220 members in the categories of newspapers, magazines and newsletters, with a total circulation of 9.32 million. Of that total, 125 are newspapers: four national and 118 diocesan in the U.S.; one national and one diocesan newspaper in Canada; and one newspaper in Ireland, for a total newspaper circulation of 4.13 million.
Since 1911, the Catholic Press Association (CPA) has been uniting and serving the Catholic Press in an ever-changing world of communication. The association’s mission is to “build and strengthen the value, effectiveness and identity of Catholic media by facilitating the professional development and spiritual growth of its members. Furthermore, the CPA contributes to the church’s mission of communicating the Good News and evangelizing the modern world by engaging and supporting content creators and distributors of Catholic media.”
We are grateful to you, our readers and subscribers, who support and embrace The Catholic Messenger’s mission to educate, inspire and inform the faithful in the Diocese of Davenport and beyond.