Four NWN staff members win Press Association awards

News earns second in typographic, editorial excellence

The Northern Wyoming News brought home second place in two major award categories and nine individual Pacemaker awards from the 2025 Wyoming Press Association winter convention in Cheyenne last weekend.

In its five years as the Northern Wyoming News this is the first ever award in Typographic Excellence, placing second in Division B. Division B is for newspapers with circulation between 1,400 and 3,000.

Four areas are judged for Typographic Excellence: photo reproduction, type reproduction, selection of type for news and advertising and design and layout.

Judges comments included, “Nice headings and easy to read. Sometimes there gets to be too much text that could use a picture to break it up.”

The Northern Wyoming News and editor/manager Karla Pomeroy earned second place for Editorial Excellence. Judging is based on literary excellence, insight, scope, suitability and timeliness.

The News won first place in 2021 and 2023 and earned second place in 2019. Judges comments included, “Readers probably like the folksy tone in these editorials. A sense of community shines through in these pieces.”

PACEMAKERS

Four staff members earned three each individual or Pacemaker awards.

Reporter Sean Mortimer took first place for feature photo for his jumping goat picture from the Washakie County Fair. Comments from judges included, “You can’t plan ahead to capture this moment. It shows a different view the general, non ag public isn’t used to seeing and puts into perspective the work these youth put into controlling their animals.”

Mortimer took second place in news-feature story for his feature on Powell athlete Ethan Asher and his recovery. Judge comments were, “Wow, what a story! Very inspirational — good work giving us the history that comes with his amazing life and recovery. Nicely told. Thank you.”

He also earned an honorable mention for arts/entertainment/culture reporting for his features on Washakie County Fair musical artists and a feature of the movie “Socks.”

Comments from judges included, “The writer did a good job getting into the musical influences, career development and musical trajectories of musician Tris Munsick and married country duo Thompson Square.”

Production manager Jane Gates earned three advertising design awards. She received a second place for an institutional ad for State Farm. She also received an honorable mention in the category for an ad for McGarvin-Taylor Real Estate.

Gates also earned an honorable mention in the best use of color category for an ad for Sunlight Federal Credit Union.

Judge comments were, “This was a tough category to judge, and this ad could just as easily been at the top. Great use of photography, consistent colors and nice logo placement. A well-designed ad that really shows what the credit union is trying to portray.” 

Sports editor Alex Kuhn earned two second-place awards, one for a sports action photo for a Worland high jumper and one in sports feature for Lady Warrior wrestler Rivers Carrell after she won her state title.

Comments on the high jump photo were, “The unique perspective on the high jumper makes this a great photo. There had to be some planning go into this photo. No one is that lucky.” 

Comments on the Carrell photo were, “Photo perfectly captures the moment of joy and realization when wrestler wins the state title.”

Pomeroy rounded out the individual awards with a firefighting photo from the Green Hills Golf Course. In giving it an honorable mention, the judge wrote, “There are many excellent if unfortunate fire photos in this category. This image could have been about anywhere in the mix. The edge here is the lighting — the fact that you could see what the firefighter was doing even though he’s inside the shed. It lacks more dramatic flames, but nuances are excellent here, and that made the difference in a division filled with

great entries.”