Winner, Winner

As the hustle and bussle of local journalism rolls on, we take pause at Moonshine Ink to celebrate winning five awards in the 2017 National Newspaper Better Newspaper Contest. Amongst the winning categories were first place for Best Series Ad Idea; second place in Civic Community Service Award, Best Sports Feature Story, and Social Media Journalism; and third place for Best Investigative Story or Series.

First Place: Best Series Ad Idea

The newspaper competition highlights creative and intriguing ad ideas, and Moonshine was thrilled to earn first-place for Best Series Ad Idea for our Sierra Watch campaign. The winter ad series featured big bold lettering over Tahoe landscape photos that read “This scenery sucks! Said no one ever” and “Sick of Nature? KSL can fix that.” The ad series was created by Moonshine for Sierra Watch to promote their partnership with Keep Squaw True.

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Second Place: Civic Community Service

We are deeply honored to receive second place in Civic Community Service for our Housing Crisis series in which Moonshine stands out as being one of the key community sources for Truckee/Tahoe housing issue information.

“Helping to keep roofs over the heads of our local community members is a special project to which we are dedicated, and for which we have committed countless resources, leveraged creative thinking, and entered into unique collaborations, all in the name of community service,” writes Moonshine Ink Publisher, Mayumi Elegado. Moonshine initially dove into the topic by dedicated a four-part series to the issue titled Housing Crisis in 2016 which gained traction from community leaders and members who report that they share the series far and wide.

“This entry represents an incredible amount of research and hard work. The issue becomes alive because it focuses on real people, real families and real needs and how a housing shortage affects the entire community and not just those without a place to call home. Best of all this series brought new housing to the area,” judges from the NNA said.

Second Place: Social Media Journalism

A new category was added this year to the competition for Social Media Journalism and Moonshine took home second-place for our nomination. Our entry highlighted how videos have proven to be top-dog when it comes to promoting our editorial content through social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter).

Three powerful video campaigns that blossomed out of editorial content in 2016 include 27 60-second interview spots with local election candidates, a compellation video featuring a local environmental steward that was filmed entirely underwater, and clips and voiceover from a controversial development hearing where voices were raised on both sides. Social media is an ever-evolving channel and Moonshine is excited to increase our reader’s draw with alternative and creative additions to our newspaper.

Second Place: Best Sports Feature Story or Series:

As for editorial awards Moonshine won second place for Best Sports Feature for Risking Reward by Dave Zook. The article addressed how the Tahoe community has repeatedly experienced death in the action sports world (more than 10 in the past decade) and features candid essays from prominent local industry figures — including Robb Gaffney, JT Holmes, Logan LaPlante, Megan Michelson, Jaclyn Paaso, and John Walsh — who reflect on the impact these deaths have throughout our community, as well as offer ideas for the future. One NNA judge said “Great account on the awareness on the downside of Tahoe sports.”

Third Place: Best Investigative or In-Depth Story or Series

Moonshine received third place for Best Investigative Series for our four-part Housing Crisis series. The judging committee credited the series as “a very thorough examination of the housing issues in Truckee, from the past through examining solutions for the future. Nice use of graphics to illustrate the problem and to make all that information readable and aesthetically pleasing.”

For the full list of awards in 2017 see chart below.