The new Rogue Valley Times sign at 2 E. Main St. in downtown Medford.

The Rogue Valley Times’ inaugural year of serving Southern Oregon netted the publication dozens of honors at the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association’s 2024 Better Newspaper Contest.

The awards, announced Thursday night at the ONPA Annual Convention at Eagle Crest Resort in Redmond, included first place in the General Excellence category for Group B (multi-weeklies) and first place for Best Overall Website in the state.

The paper also earned the Sweepstakes Award “for receiving the highest overall rating for a multi-weekly newspaper” in the contest, as well as the Baker Family Public Service Journalism Award for Buffy Pollock’s “Danger of Caring” series about the fatal injury a caregiver suffered at work and the hazards of her profession.

Members of the Oklahoma Press Association judged this year’s contest.

EO Media Group Publisher and CEO Heidi Wright praised Times staff for the volume of ONPA awards earned in the year of its debut. The Times launched in February 2023 after the abrupt closure of the Mail Tribune the month prior. The awards were for stories that ran in calendar year 2023.

“To win three of the top ONPA awards after starting up just last year is quite the accomplishment and speaks to the level of commitment by editor Troy Heie and his staff,” Wright said. “The RVT newsroom does an incredible job of producing high-quality journalism for the Rogue Valley.”

Heie said his predecessor, the Times’ founding editor David Smigelski, helped to direct and shape the newspaper’s success from the start.

Smigelski’s work with reporter Pollock on the award-winning “Danger of Caring” series, for example, “was instrumental in making it an impactful series of true public service journalism,” Heie said.

“I’m exceptionally proud of the entire staff at the Times, past and present. Our team worked tirelessly since our inception a year and a half ago to make this online and print news operation meaningful and important.

“That mission continues,” Heie said. “We thank our readers, and particularly our subscribers and advertisers for helping us do our best work each day.”

First place

• General Excellence, Rogue Valley Times staff 
• Public Service Journalism (Open), Buffy Pollock, Danger of Caring series: The death of Bobbie Kolada
• Best Overall Website (Open), Rogue Valley Times staff
• Best Enterprise Reporting, Buffy Pollock, Danger of Caring series: The death of Bobbie Kolada
• Best Educational Coverage, Buffy Pollock, ‘Whole new chapter’: Crater band hopes to shed its hand-me-downs through fundraising
• Best Feature-Personality, Erick Bengel, Retiring Judge Joe Charter reflects on the ‘anti-court’ of ROC
• Best Lifestyle Coverage, Erick Bengel, Primary care emergency: Southern Oregon is short of doctors
• Best Spot News Coverage, Buffy Pollock, Tragedy on the Oregon Coast: Local dad dies in fall trying to save boys
• Best Photo Essay, Jamie Lusch, Preemptive strike on wildfires: Lomakatsi Restoration Project conducts prescribed burn outside Ruch
• Best Sports Photo, Andy Atkinson, 5A TRACK: Crater boys land 2nd at state
• Best News Photo, Jamie Lusch, Armed man arrested after Medford standoff

Second place

• Best Personality Feature, Buffy Pollock, WinCo Betty finally gets to retire
• Best Feature Story-General, Erick Bengel, ‘The best ideas’: Fire survivors know what fire survivors need 
• Best Government Coverage, Buffy Pollock, Families, Rep. Marsh say response to caregiver deaths is unacceptable
• Best Feature Photo, Jamie Lusch, Southern Oregon the site of the last great train robbery
• Best Headline Writing, Robert Galvin, Headlines on OSF’s second act, dairy label bill, postal service plan and button overload
• Best Writing, Buffy Pollock, Responders remember Almeda Fire, Teen hero and Medford father’s Greenway gripes
• Best Sports Story, Kris Henry, Let’s hear it for the girls: Southern Oregon-area wrestlers win nine of 14 titles
• Best Lifestyle Coverage, Erick Bengel, Jackson County’s only licensed psilocybin manufacturer in R&D phase

Third place

• Best Feature Story, Buffy Pollock, 50-Year Quest: Sutherlin woman continues the search for brother lost in Vietnam
• Best Photo Essay, Andy Atkinson, Bringing home the crown: Cascade Christian claims state 3A basketball title
• Best Feature Photo, Jamie Lusch, Central Point fourth-grader makes slime to help his mom
• Best Editorial, Robert Galvin, Rogue Valley Times best editorial submissions
• Best Lifestyle Coverage, Buffy Pollock, Bodies on the Greenway: Bear Creek Greenway has become a thoroughfare for drugs and death
• Best News Photo, Jamie Lusch, Controlled burn sends smoke up near Ashland
• Best Local Column, Robert Galvin, Thinking Out Loud column
• Best Editorial Page, Robert Galvin, Rogue Valley Times editorial pages on May 2, Aug. 19 and Dec. 28, 2023.
• Best Page One Design, EO Media Group design staff, Salmonfly hatch on June 20, Crater High band uniforms on July 20 and responders recall Almeda Fire in Sept. 12, 2023 edition
• Best Writing, Erick Bengel, ROC Court reflections, fire survivors’ ideas and remembering Dennis Richardson
• Best Spot News Coverage, Kevin Opsahl, Judge refuses to dismiss cases, rails against failure of public defender system

Rogue Valley Times reporter Nick Morgan also earned three first-place awards for a story he wrote while working for the Grants Pass Daily Courier. “I just choose not to suffer,” which covered a Medford patient utilizing Oregon’s Death with Dignity law, won Best Story of the Year, Best Feature Story-General and Best Lifestyle Coverage in its publication group.