We were pretty spoiled when it came to Grange media awards last year.
Not only did former editor Keith Testa receive one from the Concord Grange in the spring, which was kind of like an award for the entire paper since it is just a staff of two, but that was followed up with the state media award given out by the N.H. State Grange in October.
Who knew the Concord Insider had so many fans – especially outside our little bubble that is the N.H. state capital? We assumed our reputation had spread, but you can’t be too sure just how far-reaching the impact goes.
We figured those two prestigious awards that hang proudly in the Insider pod were probably all we’d get from the Grange, which would be more than enough because we never imagined winning the first two anyway. But it appears that our fandom goes even further than we thought – like across state lines.
Now we don’t like to brag, but sometimes it’s necessary – and this is one of those times. The Insider was recently awarded first place in the Northeast Grange Leaders Media Newspaper category.
We beat out newspapers from the other five New England states and New York. Now if that’s not a reason to woop it up then we don’t know what is.
According to Dick Patten, who nominated the Insider, “The Grange judges from the other states like the way (the Insider) covered not only grange events for the organization, but news as a whole.”
So that makes three Grange awards in less than 12 months. Looks like we’re going to need a bigger office for all these awards.
Of course, we don’t want to be greedy, but now that we’ve swept the local, state and regional level, we can’t help but wonder if there’s some national recognition in our future?
Only time will tell, and we’ll be sure to keep you posted.
Insider staff
