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I am happy to share with you the kudos the Beacon received at the annual conference of the North American Mature Publishers Association, whose journalism competition we enter every year.  

Each of our editions gets entered in a different category, based on circulation. And this year, all three of our editions reaped honors.  

The Baltimore Beacon brought home three first-place awards and one second-place award.  

Last September’s cover story, “Enjoy being a student again” by our managing editor Margaret Foster, shared first place in the “senior issues” category with last October’s cover, “Elevating new writers over 50” by freelance writer Laura Melamed, who also wrote this month’s cover story “In style, thrifty and over 50.” The judges found both articles “fun, lively and extremely informative.” They also praised each article’s “excellent list of resources.” 

And Glenda C. Booth, who regularly writes features for us, won first place in feature writing for her “fascinating and well-written” May cover story, “Devoted to raising, racing pigeons.”  

In the “How-to” feature category, our long-time writer Robert Friedman won second place for his August 2023 cover story on glass blowing in Baltimore, “Put your lips together and blow.”  

The Howard County Beacon won first place in the “feature writing” category for an arts story last September by freelancer Susan Ahearn. Called both a “beautiful” and “fun” article, her story “Artists pass down folk art to apprentices” was also praised by the judges as “A wonderful story about keeping a tradition — the art of Black storytelling — alive.”   

In the profile category, Foster won second place for her profile of an artist in “Turning scrap wood into wildlife paintings,” earlier this year. She also won a first-place award for her Howard County version of “Enjoy being a student again.”  

As you may know, many of the travel and arts stories we write, along with my monthly column, also appear in our flagship edition, the Greater Washington Beacon. And because it has the largest circulation of our publications (100,000+), any story that appears there cannot also be entered in the smaller circulation categories.  

As a result, many of our awards this year were won by our Washington edition, even though all our readers had the chance to see them.  

We were especially thrilled when the Washington Beacon won first place in the “general excellence” category. The judges said: “This newspaper is rich with outstanding, well-written articles and impeccable editing…Every high-quality issue offers a distinct and easy-to-read layout, good sectioning, good headline writing and a consistent presentation.”  

We also won first-place awards in the “profile,” “feature” and “how-to” categories. A second-place award for a feature went to freelancer Laura Sturza, for her cover story “Bachelorettes of the DMV.” (Stay tuned for another story about that reality TV show next month!) 

Long-time travel writers Don Mankin and Victor Block were both honored for their “wonderfully written” travel pieces.  

In the “theatre review” category, where we had to submit two articles by each reviewer, we were thrilled that two of our freelance reviewers were recognized: Mark Dreisonstok won first place for “insightful” reviews of Sister Act at Toby’s and Hair at Signature Theatre in Virginia. Lynda Lantz won second place for her reviews of others plays in Washington and Virginia. 

In the “senior issues” category, two of my “From the Publisher” columns took first place this year. Under the “editorial/opinion” category, three other columns I wrote were honored with first, second and third place awards. 

Another trifecta occurred in the “personal essay” category. Foster won another first place, while two freelance submissions that we printed won second and third. May Benatar was honored for her piece on “Move to a new home is a mixed blessing,” while Taya Jackson won for “Lessons learned from a job search at 77.”  

So for all you writers out there, if you have a personal story to tell that you think our readers will appreciate and/or relate to, feel free to send it to us. (We get a lot of such submissions, but we’re proud to note that we print the best ones and even submit them for awards.) 

Of course, the most important honor we receive is from you, our readers, who pick up your copy of the Beacon each month from one of our thousands of free distribution sites, subscribe by mail or read us online at thebeaconnewspapers.com.  

However you choose to do it, we thank you for reading the Beacon!  

By the way, you can look up and read any of the articles mentioned above on our website.