VIRGINIA BEACH — The Independent News has earned three awards from the Virginia Press Association for its reporting and opinion writing this past year.
The awards were announced on Saturday, May 4, during the 2024 VPA Conference & Awards Banquet in Charlottesville. The awards covered journalism published in 2023.
“We’re grateful for the recognition, but we’re especially grateful to provide original journalism for our communities,” John Doucette, editor and publisher of The Independent News said in a statement. “Thank you to our contributors for their hard work, our neighbors for their continued readership and our advertisers for making local journalism possible for Virginia Beach.”
Dr. Karen Beardslee Kwasny, formerly a member of the Virginia Beach Planning Commission, earned the newspaper’s first VPA award for column writing.
Kwasny placed third in commentary writing for a portfolio that included columns about gender equality, the importance of getting young people outdoors and the need to preserve the rural character of southern Virginia Beach.
Doucette placed second in the public affairs writing category for a story about how a nonprofit organization acted as a vehicle for dark money in state legislative elections.
He placed third for a newswriting portfolio that included a story about campaign contributions by a developer to members of the Virginia Beach City Council who voted on a controversial rezoning request.
Now in its 10th year, The Independent News is a small community newspaper based in southern Virginia Beach. It is published by Pungo Publishing Co., LLC.
The Independent News is an associate member of the Virginia Press Association. The newspaper competed in a category for specialty newspapers and magazines.
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