KENNEWICK — This past weekend I had the privilege of going to the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association’s annual conference. While I was there, I found myself beaming a bit with pride as the team I am fortunate to work with was recognized for their hard work via WNPA’s Better Newspaper competition.

Our multiple first-place awards for editorial and advertising items made the entire management team, proud of our efforts to serve the communities of Grant and Adams counties.

"I am extremely proud of our team here at the Columbia Basin Herald. The talent that we have in this building continues to do great things with the editorial content and advertising design in our paper. Our team is consistent in winning awards year in and year out, this year was no exception. Another banner year for our CBH team,” said Columbia Basin Herald General Manager Bob Richardson.

As an editor, I do my best to leverage that talent to produce the best work possible to keep our readers informed and able to proactively engage in community events, solutions to challenges in the community and, overall, build community through ensuring people have the information needed to make smart decisions.

Often, that helps us give credit where credit is due. A prime example of that is Cheryl Schweizer’s first-place nod for her story “Up from the ashes” which highlighted the Garza family’s efforts to rebuild their gym, Jab Fitness, after a July 2021 fire gutted the business. That story isn’t just a triumph for her, but also something that shows what we should have pride in as a community here in the Basin.

The job of a paper isn’t just to advertise and cover current events. It’s also about recording the history of the community the paper serves. Joel Martin, dad-joke-teller and history lover, was able to tap into a vital part of our region’s heritage with his first-place win for his story, “Ancient ways.” The story covered the Archaeology Days event at the Wanapum Heritage Center last year and discussed the importance of the Wanapum and how they continue to be a vital part of our regional culture. We cover the event each year, but Joel’s coverage stood out because of the respect he has for the Wanapum and its history. We thank the Wanapum for welcoming us each year and allowing us to be a part of such an amazing event.

As much as I may nerd out regarding what happens at a city council meeting or looking at how a rate is set by a utility district, I know there are a lot of folks who are as passionate about sports as I am about traditional local news. With that in mind, I want to give a huge kudos to Sports Reporter Ian Bivona, Senior Reporter Cheryl Schweizer and former Columbia Basin Herald Reporter Rebecca Pettingill for their first-place award for the 2022 Gridiron Guide. That annual football preview covers 13 schools – 14 with Moses Lake Christian Academy starting their football program this year — scattered across the roughly 4,700 square miles of our coverage area. With Bivona in the lead and Schweizer and Pettingill putting in serious effort, we took home the prize for the Topical, In-Paper Section category.

The advertising team at the paper took home several awards as well, with notable mentions for Dana Moreno. She is over our distribution, but she’s also a talented designer who took home awards for ads she designed for our Best of the Basin event (first place) and Newspapers in Education program (second place).

Our team, in total, brought home more than a dozen awards with rankings from first to third.

We want to acknowledge that our team doesn’t do this alone. We work toward excellence with the support of our community which includes readers who give us their feedback, advertisers who put their faith in us and sources who lend us their knowledge to ensure we provide the best content we possibly can.

The management team here at the paper thanks our community for their support and we express our deep appreciation to our staff for the dedication, hard work and care they put into their professions every single day.

"I am incredibly proud of the Columbia Basin Herald team. Together, our business and editorial staff members continue to make the Herald shine as a prime example of successful and relevant community media. Their fundamental commitment to providing the community with meaningful, solutions-driven journalism and business solutions is vital to the residents in Grant and Adams counties. On behalf of the Hagadone Newspaper and Media Groups, I sincerely thank the Herald team for their unwavering dedication to quality and community engagement,” said Hagadone President and Corporate Publisher Clint Schroeder in an email to me earlier this week.

R. Hans "Rob" Miller may be reached at [email protected].