Inter-Mountain Named West Virginia Newspaper of the Year

Inter-Mountain photo From left: Inter-Mountain employees Edgar Kelley, Taylor McKinnie, Anthony Gaynor, Joey Kittle, managing editor Brad Johnson, Lori Smith, Sue Blankenship, accounting manager Karen Channell and circulation manager Kristi Groves. Not pictured is advertising director Michelle Smith.

CHARLESTON – The Inter-Mountain Newspaper was named Newspaper of the Year at the 2024 West Virginia Press Association Convention Awards Banquet held Saturday in Charleston.

The award means The Inter-Mountain newspaper earned the most points overall in the 2024 West Virginia Press Association Better Newspaper Contest, including awards for editorial and advertising.

“It is a great honor to be named West Virginia Newspaper of the Year.” Said Michelle Smith, Advertising Director at IM. “Our entire staff works hard to provide great news coverage and a great product, as well as great marketing for our advertisers. We are all committed to doing our best for our readers and advertisers.”

“We are very proud to be named Newspaper of the Year” Said Brad Johnson, IM Editor-in-Chief. “Our employees are very dedicated and have been working hard for a long time. It’s great to see them receive this national recognition.”

The Inter-Mountain newspaper was previously named WVPA Newspaper of the Year in 2014.

In this year’s competition, The Inter-Mountain took first place in Division 2 for the state in the Press Association editorial competition and first place for the state in Division 2 for the Press Association advertising competition. The work being judged was from the 2023 calendar year.

In the editorial competition, The Inter-Mountain won eight first-place awards, 10 second-place awards and 11 third-place awards, for a total of 55 competition points.

In the advertising competition, The Inter-Mountain won eight first-place awards, six second-place awards and six third-place awards, for a total of 42 points in the competition.

IM editor Edgar Kelley won three first-place awards, editor-in-chief Brad Johnson won two, and content editor Anthony Gaynor also won two.

Kelley won the award for best news reporting “Prisoner Escape” and the best business, economic or employee reporting “The Virgin Hyperloop in Tubes.”

Kelley also won the award for best government affairs reporting with Johnson. “County fights city over TIF application.” Johnson also won the award for Best Report Generated from a Public Service Announcement for “Listening session.”

Gaynor won Best Photo Essay with Lori Smith of IM “We celebrate Fasnacht” and won the Best Lifestyle Pages award with Robert McCutcheon for “Mission to Africa.”

The IM editorial team also won the Best Front Page award for the October 2 issue.

In advertising, Sue Blankenship and Lori Smith, IM account executives, won three awards and one first-place award, respectively.

Blankenship won the competition for best single black-and-white ad larger than a quarter page, best color ad – a quarter page or smaller, and best ad campaign – half a page or larger.

Smith won in the “Best Online Motion Advertising” category.

The IM advertising team won first place in the categories: Best Special Section – Sports, Best Promotional Campaign for an Online Newspaper, Best Home Advertising and Best Agency Advertising.

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