For the last several years in a row, the Garretson Gazette has won or placed in the top three spots for various awards in the South Dakota NewsMedia Associations Annual Better Newspapers. These awards are judged by our journalistic peers from other state associations so as to be unbiased.
In just the last four years, the Garretson Gazette has won twelve such awards including Best Feature, Best Sports Reporting, Best Feature Profile, Best Non-Feature Profile. We’ve also placed highly in Best Local Government Reporting, Spot News and Feature Photography. The vast majority of these awards have gone to co-editor and business manager Carrie Moritz, who joined the paper full time in 2019.
This year, the Gazette had more modest achievements and brought home only two silver medals. However they are both in categories that this paper has never won before, Best 2-Column Ad Design for an advertisement we did for The Combine/Sports Cabin, and Best Local News Website for our digital innovations and online archive. Both of these accolades again go to Carrie Moritz. Moritz was also elected as the Garretson Commercial Club President this past January.
Her partner, Garrick Moritz, feels that this just goes to show what a dynamic and resourceful set of skills Carrie brings to the table.
“These are awards we would simply not have even been in the running for without the general excellence that she brings to the job,” he said. “So when I tell people that the paper would close as a going concern without her, you best believe it.”
