Journalistic excellence

One of the most coveted journalism awards in Minnesota has found its way to Steele County. 
The Steele County Times received the Lynn Smith Community Leadership award Thursday night at the annual awards banquet of the Minnesota Newspaper Association in Bloomington. The leadership award is one of the top four awards given out to Minnesota newspapers. 
“Absolutely astonishing,” is how publisher Rick Bussler described winning the award, which all newspapers, including weeklies and dailies, compete for each year. “For our little newspaper to go up against large dailies across the state and actually win the award speaks volumes to the kind of journalism we are doing,” Bussler said.
The Times won the honor for its sexual assault awareness series called, “The Invisible Scar,” last May. A key component of the series was an in-depth account of one woman’s battle with being sexually assaulted by three men, including her own father, brother and a complete stranger, at different times throughout her teenage years. The woman featured was Ann Anderson, who is the advertising director for the Times.
Judges commented about the Times’ coverage: “Great story that needed to be told. As the publisher stated, ‘The full extent of this initiative may never be known, as sexual abuse is most commonly a taboo subject and not talked about.’ If nothing else, it left an opening for people to talk about it, giving others the opportunity to find help and eventually heal.”
In accepting the award, publisher Bussler told the audience that victims like Anderson have hope and a voice to share their horrifying stories through the newspaper. “I had people come up to me after the awards ceremony to tell me that my message about Ann’s story inspired them and gave them the gift of hope,” Bussler said, adding that he hopes the same was accomplished with readers when the original story ran last year. 
The Times won six additional awards, including one other first place for best editorial page. Judges wrote: “Solid, opinionated selections. The work on stopping sexual violence made this newspaper stick out from the crowd.”
Other awards given to the Times included: second places for best feature photo by Ann Anderson and best headline writing and third places for typography and design, best social issues story by Bussler and best local breaking news coverage, also by Bussler.
“It’s wonderful to be recognized by our peers for outstanding journalism,” Bussler said. “These honors are a credit to our entire staff for the hard work they do week after week.”
Added Bussler: “We really owe it to our readers each week to provide a top quality product that contains stories and photos with high impact. Our commitment has always been to provide the best journalistic package possible.” 
This was the fourth consecutive year that the Times has won state awards. In 2013, the local paper also captured seven awards.
The Times’ sister newspaper, the News Enterprise of West Concord, also captured seven awards during the contest, including two first places. 
Journalists from Iowa newspapers judged the Minnesota contest this year.