Rochester Voice wins four firsts, six awards in all during NHPA awards ceremony

Four of the top awards won by The Rochester Voice displayed during a Facebook Live event put on by the New Hampshire Press Association on Wednesday. (Courtesy images/NHPA)

MANCHESTER - The New Hampshire Press Association held its 2019 Distinguished Journalism Awards ceremony on Wednesday with The Rochester Voice taking home six awards, four of which won top honors including General Excellence for its website therochestervoice.com.

The awards ceremony was held remotely at the Nackey Loeb School of Communication due to safety concerns surrounding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The broadcast was hosted by former New Hampshire Press Association President Vanessa Palange and Union Leader correspondent Kimberly Haas, who named the winners during an hourlong Facebook Live event.

The Rochester Voice's four first-place awards were for:

Feature photo, for a photo taken at the New Hampshire Farm Museum of a grandfather watching his grandson playing with a hula hoop titled, "Hooping it up at Museum's Children's Day."

Spot news photo, for a photo taken during a Veterans Day event during which homemade quilts were given out titled "Veterans get a warm thank you for their service."

Health Reporting, for a story about a woman seeking help during a mental health crisis titled "A mental health emergency gets a slow response"

General Excellence - Digital Presence. According to the contest rules, this high honor is awarded to the website "judged to demonstrate superior reporting, use of video, social interaction, presentation, and overall utility and value." It also states that, "Sites will also be judged for their ease of navigation, layout, use of graphics, photos, animation, color, multimedia, podcasts and other visual elements."

"This was a wonderful night for The Rochester Voice.," said editor Harrison Thorp. "The only thing better would be if we could have celebrated it in person. But I am truly humbled and thankful."

Rochester Voice President Martha T Soto Galicia said, "I couldn't be more proud of the passion we feel and the effort we make every day to show Rochester and its surrounding cities and towns that we want to remain your most trusted news source."