NJ Advance Media’s Advertising and Content teams each won big in the The NJ Press Association Better Newspaper Contests, including taking top honors for General Excellence.  The organization took home a total of 73 awards in a variety of advertising, editorial, photography categories.

The Best Advertising and Editorial Contests celebrate the achievements of NJPA member newspapers and digital news organizations.  The NJPA’s mission is to inspire these organizations to find new ways to inform, entertain, enlighten and engage their readers, and champion innovation and creativity in advertising.

Advertising

NJ Advance Media advertising and creative team won 22 NJPA awards for creative excellence including 9 first place awards, 8 second place awards and 5 third place awards. The advertising contest celebrates excellence in design for digital and print promotions, marketing collateral and content sections. The honors included digital and print advertising for work done in categories such as healthcare, home services, travel, banking, and legal.

Four first-place advertising awards were bestowed to NJ.com and five were awarded to The Star-Ledger, including for promotions of Mosaic.nj.com, the company’s newest website devoted to serving diverse communities.

“Each day, our advertising and creative teams are focused on helping businesses reach their goals through exceptional strategy and messaging,” said NJ Advance Media Vice President of Marketing Michele Hayes. “We’re so proud of the talent, and dedication to excellence, that our reps, writers and designers bring to the table in service of our clients, and we congratulate the teams on these NJPA honors.”

Content

For the 3rd year in a row, the editorial team took home the general excellence award for The Star-Ledger.  The Star-Ledger/NJ.com compete in the New Jersey Press Association’s larger circulation division. Its sister publications, The Express-Times/lehighvalleylive.com, compete in the smaller circulation division.

The Star-Ledger/NJ.com won 14 first-place awards and The Express-Times/lehighvalleylive.com (Easton, PA) won 5 first-place awards.  Among top honors was first-place in the Enterprise Reporting category for “When Tasers Fail,” Audio Portfolio (podcast) category for “Lights Out,” and the Public Service category for “Portraits of a Crisis.”

51 awards for editorial and photography were issued, including 19 first-place, 15 second-place, and 17 third-place awards.

“Our No. 1 objective is to serve our audience. It is gratifying, however, to be recognized in such a significant way by the judges,” Ronnie Agnew, General Manager, NJ Advance Media.

For a full list of winners and award categories, read more at NJ.com.

Congratulations to everyone.