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Gallup Sun garners NMPA awards

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First awards for popular weekly newspaper

On Sept. 24, Gallup Sun Writer Bernie Dotson and Publisher/Editor Babette Herrmann walked away with two second-place awards from the New Mexico Press Association at the organization’s annual newspaper contest. The NMPA is the umbrella organization of which many state media outlets are a part.

The Sun is part of a Weekly Class I category of the NMPA that includes the Las Cruces Bulletin, The Taos News, the Valencia County News Bulletin, among others.

Dotson won an award for his April sports article, “Gallup trainer getting boxing off the stool,” and Herrmann won a news-writing award for her June story, “Investigator turns up the heat on a decade-old cold case.”

The NMPA holds an annual ceremony at Santa Ana Pueblo’s Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa, where state newspapers gather for dinner, networking, and a weekend of seminars and industry activities.

“I’m honored and respectful of the recognition,” Dotson said. “The award is as much a community award as it is an individual award. You don’t get to be recognized in something like this without having a more-than-decent rapport with the community you serve.”

Both Dotson and Herrmann are experienced journalists who have lived in Gallup for a combined 12 years.

Dotson covers politics, education, features, and sports, and he writes the Roll Call column for the Sun. Herrmann wears many different hats as both the publisher and editor of the Sun.

“For a start-up weekly, I am proud of our accomplishments,” she said. “We didn’t enter a whole lot of items, so I was pleasantly surprised that we picked up two awards.”

The NMPA awards event comes about two weeks before the start of National Newspaper Week, which spans Oct. 2 through 8. The annual observance celebrates and emphasizes the impact that newspapers have upon large and small communities alike.

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