It’s mid-summer, which brings us steamy weather, outdoors activities and, if you’re a journalist in Pennsylvania, the year’s most anticipated press awards.
This week, we learned that TheBurg received 25 individual and group Keystone Media Awards, a peer-reviewed contest sponsored by the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association (PNA) Foundation. This year, PNA received 2,545 entries from 124 news organizations throughout Pennsylvania, with entries judged by working journalists in other states.
Our awards cover a wide range of areas, including reporting, writing, photography, illustration and design. For the 10th straight year, TheBurg won the prestigious “Sweepstakes” award for the best performance statewide in our category. Earlier this year, TheBurg also won the “Sweepstakes” award in the PNA Foundation’s annual advertising contest.
But let us delay no further. As I have in previous years, I have all the winners listed below, with links or images so you can see what the judges deemed to be some of the best work done statewide in 2025. In some cases, we’re sharing just a sample of the entry, which included multiple stories in the submission.
REPORTING/WRITING AWARDS
Enterprise Reporting: 1st Place, Maddie Gittens, Lawrance Binda, Alexandra Jones and Diane McCormick (3 of 6 submitted stories shown below). Subject: Downtown Harrisburg
Enterprise Reporting: 2nd Place, Maddie Gittens, Lawrance Binda, Diane McCormick & Rebekah Teuscher (3 of 6 submitted stories shown below). Subject: Federal Impacts on Harrisburg
News Beat Reporting: 1st Place, Diane McCormick, Local Business Beat (3 of 6 submitted stories shown below).
Ongoing News Coverage: 1st Place, Maddie Gittens & Susan Ryder (3 of 5 submitted stories shown below). Subject: Homelessness in Harrisburg
News Feature Story: 2nd Place, Diane McCormick
News Feature Story: Honorable Mention, Maddie Gittens
Business or Consumer Story: 2nd Place, Diane McCormick
Column: 2nd Place, Lawrance Binda (2 of 3 submitted columns)
Sports/Outdoor Column: 2nd Place, Natalie diSanto (3 submitted columns)
Sports Feature: 2nd Place, Rachel Curry
Lifestyle/Entertainment Beat: 2nd Place, Gina Napoli, “Family Time” beat (3 of 6 submitted stories)
Excellence in Reporting on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: 1st Place, Susan Ryder, Colin McGuire, Bob MacGinnes & Stephanie Kalina-Metzger (4 of 5 stories)
Headline Writing: 2nd Place, Lawrance Binda (3 submitted headlines)
ART/PHOTOGRAPHY/DESIGN AWARDS
Sports Feature Photo: 1st Place, Lawrance Binda
Sports Action Photo: 2nd Place, Lawrance Binda
Photo Story/Essay: 2nd Place, Landon Wise
Photo Story/Essay: Honorable Mention, Gina Napoli
News Page Design: First Place, Landon Wise
News Page Design: Second Place, Maddie Gittens
Feature Page Design: Second Place, Megan Caruso (3 designs)
Feature Page Design: Honorable Mention, Megan Caruso (3 designs)
Graphic/Photo Illustration: 1st Place, Aron Rook
Graphic/Photo Illustration: 2nd Place, Aron Rook
Graphic/Photo Illustration: Honorable Mention, Rich Hauck
Click here to see all the award winners in TheBurg’s category of the Keystone Media Awards.
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