The Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association handed out awards last week in its 2023 Better Newspaper Contest, and I’m pleased to announce that the Chieftain’s news staff won a half-dozen awards, including three first-place citations.

Here’s a quick rundown of the awards the Chieftain collected this year. (The Chieftain competed against newspapers of generally the same size in the contest, and this year’s contest was judged by members of the Texas Press Association.)

• The 2022 edition of our Wallowa County Visitors’ Guide, produced by a team of staff members and freelance writers, won a first-place award for best special section. 

• Reporter Bill Bradshaw won a first-place award in general feature writing for his story about a crew of firefighters, all of whom had military backgrounds. The Umatilla-based crew was in Wallowa County last summer fighting blazes.

• Bradshaw also collected a second-place award in the same category, general feature writing, for a story about Haunt Camp and its work to create a haunted cheesecake restaurant for Halloween.

• Bradshaw picked up another second-place award — this one for coverage of business and economic issues — for a story about an onslaught of armyworms that attacked area farms last year.

• And Bradshaw earned a third-place award in the spot-news category for his coverage of 2023’s wildfires.

• Andy Nicolais, the wonderful designer who lays out most editions of the Chieftain, won a first-place award for best front page for a spectacular layout of a feature story about avalanches. (Nicolais won a similar award for best front page for the East Oregonian, another paper owned by the EO Media Group; that layout also featured the same avalanche story. I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not true — Nicolais designed two different layouts built around the same story. Both pages looked fantastic.)

Of course, Chieftain staff members don’t do their work with an eye toward winning awards; our first obligation is to our readers.

Still, there’s no denying that awards are nice — and it’s also nice that the accolades came from other working journalists. So I wanted to share this good news with readers of the Chieftain.

Maybe there’s a prize-winner in the lineup of stories we have planned for Wednesday’s edition of the Chieftain. And, in many cases, you’ll be able to find these stories online before Wednesday on our website, wallowa.com):

• Last week, you read about the new leaders at the annual Alpenfest, one of Wallowa County’s signature events. For this week’s edition, Bill Bradshaw will have a report about how this year’s festival went.

• Ann Bloom checked out Saturday’s grand reopening of the library at Flora School; she’ll have a story and photos.

• Concern is growing about how a proposed merger between two grocery giants might play out in terms of access to pharmacies in rural Oregon, and at least one county health care provider has expressed his reservations.

• A staff member at the Wallowa Valley Center for Wellness has earned regional honors for his work with crisis intervention teams, the folks who are summoned in the event of a mental health emergency.

All of this is part of our continuing efforts to cover Wallowa County news to the best of our ability. As always, if you have a comment or question about the Chieftain, or want to suggest a story idea, email me at mmcinally@wallowa.com.

If you haven’t already, take a moment to register your subscription for digital access of the Chieftain. Call 541-963-3161 to talk to one of our customer service staff, who will be happy to walk you through the process. It’s easy, takes just a few moments to get set up and allows you to take advantage of our e-edition, app and website delivery along with your print subscription.

Finally, let me take this opportunity to once again thank the Chieftain’s subscribers: We simply would be unable to do this vital work without your support.

Mike McInally is the editor of the Wallowa County Chieftain. You can email him at editor@wallowa.com or mmcinally@wallowa.com.