notforsale

BEND — The Daily Astorian took home four first-place honors including a second place for the top prize — General Excellence — at the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association conference in Bend.

The contest was judged by newspapers in Pennsylvania and the Astorian competed against other daily Oregon newspapers with circulations less than 10,000.

DailyAstorian.com won Best Overall Website based on design, content, interactivity, ease of use and connection with the local community.

Reporter Edward Stratton earned two first-place awards for Business and Economic Issues and Best Educational Coverage. Stratton won the top business honors for “Life on the half shell,” published March 15, 2016. He won the educational field with an April 22, 2016, story headlined “Underwater robot: Clatsop Community College student basks in the technical and virtual worlds.”

Former Daily Astorian reporter Kyle Spurr, who now writes for the Bend Bulletin, won first for Best Writing for his piece, “Press play: Gambling addiction on rise in Clatsop County; few seek treatment,” published March 11, 2016.

The Daily Astorian staff took second in lifestyles coverage for its Housing Crunch series the last full week of October.

Editor David Pero earned a second-place award for a series of three editorials: one about Gov. Kate Brown’s need to step up and lead; applauding the Port of Astoria for backing away from a cargo deal; and pointing out a report on women in Oregon.

Former photographer Danny Miller took second and third place for best sports photo.

Managing Editor Laura Sellers, Deputy Managing Editor Derrick DePledge and the Design Studio team of Matt Vann and Adam Drey were named for the third-place award for Best Page One Design.

Former Editor Steve Forrester garnered third place for Best Local Column for a series of three Editor’s Notebooks: “Mill Pond rose from ashes of the Astoria Plywood Co-op”; “Astoria was a hotbed of Finnish newspaper publishing”; and “And so … goodbye.”