The Wisconsin Newspaper Association recognized the state’s newspapers for their exceptional work during its 2025 Better Newspaper Contest Awards Banquet. The event took place March 6 at The Madison Concourse Hotel in downtown Madison. Valley Sentinel came away with awards, despite a temporary publication pause starting in July.
Annually, newspapers from across the state can submit entries in the awards for editorial and advertising. Publications are divided into most categories based on circulation size and daily versus weekly publications.
Valley Sentinel’s staff and contributors were recognized with four awards. Staff earning awards include co-owner/publisher/editor-in-chief Nicole Aimone (as a member of our editorial staff), co-owner/publisher/managing editor Taylor Scott, legal editor Gary Ernest Grass, esq. and reporter Luukas Palm-Leis. Many more contributors lent their work to categories that were entered.
Valley Sentinel’s awards include first place for Editorial Award (Staff) and General News Story (Scott), second place for Open Records and Public Governance Award (Palm-Leis, Scott, with contributions from Grass and Aimone) and honorable mention for Bill Payne Excellence in Advertising Award (Scott).
The editorial staff’s award-winning editorial selections were: Resilience in the Face of Division: Why Democracy Needs Us All, a commitment to democracy as the second Trump term started; Our View: We’re endorsing a better future for the Village of Arena, our first editorial election endorsements as a paper as we determined the village could not afford to wait; and The chaos that ensues: Where the Village of Arena goes from here, an editorial ridiculing the inane and inflammatory language of a one-time village president (who resigned hours after taking office and after years contributing to a mess that will take decades to fix).
Of the editorial selections, the judge said: “Exceptional writing, target-focused, use of specific names/positions, historic references to at-hand problems provides readers a comprehensive exam of the issues addressed and action needed to resolve them.”
Winning for General News Story was Scott’s story Gov. Evers visits Spring Green, tours Wintergreen property as DALC eyes purchase about a visit from the governor, with the backdrop of a potential large acquisition by an area land trust, while efforts to save the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program from our state legislative majority were ongoing.
Of the story, the judge said: “Nice lede and good context about the visit/grant program at the top. Thorough discussion about the potential project and political dynamics.”
Placing second for Open Records and Public Governance Award was the paper’s coverage of the Village of Arena and the turnover from the previous board and clerk, and the start of the efforts to rebuild after, spearheaded by Palm-Leis, which we collectively titled “Village of Arena: Under New Management”.
Of the collection, the judge said: “Excellent watchdog journalism that puts a spotlight on, 1. why newspapers need to follow the actions of local governments, and, 2. why people need to stay informed. Without these stories and editorials, the actions of some of this village’s board members may have never been exposed. The unwavering work of this paper — especially the election editorial — resulted in the overturn of the village government, including the village president and the clerk.”
“I was incredibly proud of the work Luukas did covering such a hard village government to cover,” Scott said. “It’s also notable that this award had its divisions collapsed, so this work won second place competing against not only our Division E, but all other divisions above — D through A. This collection went up against the biggest papers and dailies in the state and took second.”
Honorable mention for Bill Payne Excellence in Advertising Award was Scott’s ad Closure designed for the Spring Green showing of the independent documentary about the closure of the UW System branch campuses, especially UW-Richland.
“While there were many entries by many community contributors this year that suffered from divisions being collapsed and truly deserved recognition, a notable entry unawarded that I believe deserved an award was John Cler’s excellent outdoors column,” Scott shared. “This was John’s first full year contributing to us and his passion for the outdoors and education shine through his columns. He went up against the biggest names in outdoors columns in the state, people who do this full time. We’ll get them next year, there are bigger fish to fry—and John will likely catch them.”
The 2025 Newspapers of the Year were The Lakeland Times, Weekly Division, and (Madison) Wisconsin State Journal, Daily Division.
“Local journalism plays a vital role in democracy, accountability, and community life,” said Scott Peterson, President of the WNA Foundation. “It is demanding work, but it is meaningful work.”
The 2025 contest received 2,493 entries from 103 newspapers. Eligible entries were published between Sept. 1, 2024, and Aug. 31, 2025, and were judged by members of the Colorado Press Association.
Best in Division winners were: Division E (non-daily circulation of 2,249 or less): Northwoods River News, Rhinelander; Division D (non-daily circulation of 2,250 – 4,499): The Star News, Medford; Division C (non-daily circulation of at least 4,500): The Lakeland Times, Minocqua; Division B (daily circulation of less than 9,999): Sheboygan Press, Sheboygan; Division A (daily circulation of at least 10,000): Wisconsin State Journal, Madison.
Out of the other Sauk, Iowa and Richland county papers, the Baraboo News Republic (Division B) took home first place for General News Story. Other area Wisconsin Newspaper Association member papers, the Dodgeville Chronicle (Division D), the Richland Observer (Division E), the Independent Star News (Division E), The Democrat Tribune (Division E) were not represented at the awards.
Valley Sentinel has been serving the Spring Green area community since October 2020, covering local news and events, meetings, arts & culture and more as an all-volunteer, editor-owned newspaper. This year was Valley Sentinel’s fourth year eligible for the WNA awards, after earning Best in Division E in 2022, in its first year eligible. The publication is committed to teaching the next generation of journalists, growing and providing quality journalism, while navigating and pioneering what the future of community news can look like and all the ways in which our communities can engage with it.
The editors of Valley Sentinel recently launched VS Media Group, a full-service advertising, marketing and communications agency designed to apply a newsroom advantage to businesses’ marketing and communications needs.
To view the complete list of winners and judges’ comments, check out the Better Newspaper Contest Awards Tab. All of the awards and entries can be viewed online.
