A Growing Opportunity

Almost nine years in business— and nine years as an award-winning newspaper. After spending the weekend up in Albany for the 2022 New York Press Association’s Spring Conference and Better Newspaper Awards, The Rockaway Times and editor Katie McFadden once again came home as a winner.

The publishers and staff of The Rockaway Times spent Friday and Saturday upstate, networking and picking up new tips to make the newspaper even better going forward at the conference. And in between, The Rockaway Times was awarded along the way.

The 2022 awards were judged by the Colorado Press Association this year. They had the tough job of going through 2,657 entries in 70 categories from 154 New York newspapers. We picked up three awards this time around.

Once again, Katie McFadden was awarded for her annual Christmas in Rockaway video, this time taking home first place, for the first time. Each December, McFadden complies this video featuring photos and videos from various holiday events around the peninsula and sets them to the tune of Shilelagh Law’s “Christmas in New York,” which they perform at the Belle Harbor Yacht Club around the holidays. She then shares it to The Rockaway Times’ social media pages. In their comments, the judges said, “What a great video of a beautiful Christmas. Love it!”

The Rockaway Times also took home second place for Spot News Photo thanks to local resident Tim Moriarty, who regularly contributes his amazing shots around the peninsula to our paper. This time, his winning shot surely depicted a unique scene. Moriarty’s photo was of a group of surfers attempting to rescue a stranded sperm whale back in December. Moriarty was right on scene and captured this news-worthy shot that earned him second place. In their comments, the judges said, “Wow! How often do we see a beached whale with people attempting to save it?”

And while we won some legitimate awards, we also won a just for fun one. The Rockaway Times took home second place for “Blooper of the Year.” It’s never a bad thing to laugh at yourself and not take yourself too seriously, and we did just that when we submitted for this award. What was it for? Last February, in response to a development proposal for the Chai Home on Beach 125th, our front page said, “Goodbye Chai?” We were later informed by a concerned caller that “chai” in Hebrew means “life.” So, we had "Goodbye Life?" in big red letters on the front page. It was an innocent mistake, and it certainly received some attention and laughs!

Despite occasional bloopers, we’re proud to say that when you’re reading The Rockaway Times, you’re reading an award-winning newspaper every year since its existence. Thank you for reading. Here’s to continued success!