A portion of the Yellow Springs News staff and contributing writers posing with their most recent “Newspaper of the Year” award. Clockwise from top left: Bill Felker, Chris Wyatt, Reilly Dixon, Iden Crockett, Cheryl Durgans, Neil Silvert and Ace, Lauren “Chuck” Shows and Matt Minde. (Photo by Flower Blackmon)
Yellow Springs News named ‘Newspaper of the Year’
- Published: April 19, 2025
Once again, the Yellow Springs News won the top prize at an annual state competition for weekly newspapers.
For excellence in journalism, design and advertising, the News was named “Newspaper of the Year” in its division at the Osman C. Hooper Non-Daily Newspaper Competition, presented by the Ohio News Media Association.
This is the 16th time since 2006 the News has clinched the honor.
Awards were presented on Thursday, April 3, in Westerville, Ohio, where representatives from 24 nondaily newspapers throughout the state gathered for the ceremony. Competing newspapers were divided into two, circulation-based divisions. The News won in Division B, which comprises weekly papers with a circulation of 2,000 or fewer. Presently, the News’ circulation is over 1,500.
In addition to “Newspaper of the Year,” the News also came away with three first-place wins in individual competition categories, as well as five second-place, one third-place and one fourth-place awards.
Editor Lauren “Chuck” Shows got first place for her Oct. 18 editorial, “Imagining a Different Village,” in which she ruminated on regional immigration trends, national prejudice and how Yellow Springs ought to navigate it all. Judges wrote that Shows’ editorial offered a “thoughtful perspective” that “reminds us that sometimes it’s necessary to dig deeper and consider the potential for growth and opportunity.”
Shows also received first for her Oct. 4 feature story, “First Presby to evict bats.” As the judges put it: “The audience would care about this story as the historical themes within … were matched with people forced to deal with nature being a pest in a house of worship.”
Reporter Reilly Dixon got “Best News Story” for his coverage of the March 14, 2024, homicide in Yellow Springs of a local resident. As judges noted, the story outlined the events surrounding the homicide, the arrest of the suspect and the subsequent criticism of the police department’s response. Judges called the story “well-balanced” and “comprehensive.”
Both Shows and Dixon got second place in the “In-Depth Reporting” category for their joint coverage of the ongoing discourse, meetings and tension surrounding the low-income housing tax credit project — specifically, the proposed 71-unit affordable housing development that may one day be built on the district-owned Morgan Fields.
For all this reporting and more, Shows, Dixon and publisher Cheryl Durgans also took home second place in “News Coverage.” For that category, judges stated that the “Community Forum,” or letters to the editor pages, “really stood out.”
“It takes a village to create this paper,” judges wrote.
The production team — currently composed of Dixon and advertising director Matt Minde — also took home awards for page design, overall newspaper layout and advertising.
The pair got second place in “Newspaper Design” — with judges noting that the paper “fits so much news into 10 pages, which is hard to do” — as well as “Page Design” for the front page of the April 12, 2024, issue of the News, which featured a five-column visual spread of last year’s total solar eclipse. Minde also received fourth place in the “Best House Ad” category for his Lauren Heaton Scholarship for Aspiring Journalists ad.
Freelance reporter and photographer Truth Garrett got third place in “Best News Photo” for his dramatic shot that accompanied the April 12 article “Locals protest firing at Antioch College’s Wellness Center.” Judges noted that the photo, “taken from the right point of view” captured the protestors’ concerns in both their faces and signs.
The entire News staff — as well as former reporter Jessica Thomas — received the second-place prize for “The 2023-24 Guide to Yellow Springs” in the “Special Edition or Section” category. Judges said the publication had a “clean and easy-to-read layout with comprehensive listings and reference maps.”
The current full-time, part-time and freelance staff of the News also includes distribution manager Jeff Vawter; village desk editor and former reporter Carol Simmons; proofreader Kitty Jensen; columnists Bill Felker, Iden Crockett, Chris Wyatt, Don Hollister and Neil Silvert; reporters El Mele and Maria N. Ramirez; and circulation assistants Beth Vawter and Kelley Day.
The News is co-owned by Shows, Minde and Durgans.
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