Best of 2021 - Adams Publishing Group

Colleagues,

As we begin the charge toward a year of ambitious goals and focus on building a bigger, more loyal audience of subscribers, I wanted to make sure we paused for a moment to celebrate the impressive journalism that came out of our newsrooms in 2021.

Our best work improved over the year before, and we’ll look to get to a new level again in 2022 by doubling down on what works. In 2021 we introduced new analytics tools to help journalists better understand digital user behaviors and interests. In many newsrooms we rolled out video and interactive solutions to tell stories differently. We recruited editors and reporters who brought new skills to improve digital performance while continuing to serve our most loyal audience, the print reader.

We know our print readers are migrating to the e-edition, and we’ll be working in 2022 on a strategy to better serve them.

We know we have great opportunities to grow and sustain subscribers with better search and social strategies, and we have training available to improve there.

We know the print newspaper must keep its place as an elite part of our product portfolio, and the new pagination center structure will ensure that.

Our news teams will work strategically around all of this, but the most important ingredient for success will be relevant and credible local journalism of the highest order. We’ll bring it in 2022.

For now, enjoy a look back at the wild year that was 2021 and how our team rose to the challenge.

Mark Adams

President & CEO

BEST OF ADAMS 2021

Community Journalism:

We Showed Up For A Big Job, Close To Home

We approached 2021 with hopes for a better year. Around the globe, better would mean striving to defeat the pandemic. Across the nation, it meant getting to the other side of an election and the aftermath that followed.

APG journalists brought both of those issues and many other world and national stories home with local context and perspective. Our jobs were much bigger than two behemoth issues that hundreds of journalists worldwide were covering, however. Our focus was on Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Boise, Idaho, and Athens, Ohio, and the hundreds of other places where APG journalists keep watch, tell compelling stories and help our communities navigate what’s going on closer to home.

If you settle in with this Best of Adams 2021 collection of journalism from our newsrooms, you’ll find some common threads. A widespread lack of affordable housing. Environmental concerns at critical levels around our rivers and lakes, basins and forests. Flooding in Skagit Valley. Drought for Idaho ranchers. Social justice issues around race and tolerance and civil liberties. All of these topics required explanation in communities that relied on our newsrooms for coverage, perspective and public forums.

National media swooped in on some of our local stories: There was the weeks-long coverage of the Gabby Petito murder case and search in Florida, and the passing of Mayberry’s Thelma Lou in Mount Airy, North Carolina, also Andy Griffith’s hometown. We covered stories of impact to individual communities, such as Smith & Wesson’s plans to bring jobs and development to Maryville, Tennessee, a scoop for the Daily Times.

We were there for celebrations, too. The East Idaho Business Journal and the Blowing Rocket in Boone, North Carolina, introduced their communities to artists who are finding great success in trying times. In Anoka County, Minnesota, a neighborhood rallied around the rescue of two great horned owl babies. Adorable.

The journalism submitted for this year’s Best of 2021 focused on stories that matter — both big and small. As big as a special report on the Klamath Basin that’s been in the works for more than a year, as small (yet thrilling) as a high school winning a regional championship for the first time. The most common thread was that the work promoted here was submitted by editors who were proud of what their teams accomplished in the spirit of serving their communities.

It is with pride that APG presents them here as a small example of a tremendous body of work completed in 2021.

Reason to be proud indeed.

Traci Bauer

APG Vice President of Content

Features Articles

Edward Miller, Evansville’s Long-Lost Airman, is Coming Home

Coverage from Janesville, Wisconsin: The Gazette

Eagle Eye: Passion, Patience Help Local Photographer Capture Rare Wildlife Images

Coverage from Eau Claire, Wisconsin: Leader-Telegram

‘Step’-Dad: For More Than 25 Years, Educator-Coach Has Helped Kids Find Their Footing

Coverage from Greenville, North Carolina: Daily Reflector

Artist In Residence: Lee Harper Vason

Coverage from Boone, North Carolina: Blowing Rocket

Local News

North Port Remembers Gabby Petito

Coverage from Port Charlotte, Florida: The Daily Sun

Smith & Wesson Moving HQ To Blount County After 169 Years in Massachusetts

Coverage from Maryville, Tennessee: The Daily Times

Escapes Reported Sex Abuse, ‘Cult’-Like Family

Coverage from Athens, Ohio: Athens Messenger

Motorist Charged with Two Felonies After Striking Two Protesters With Vehicle During Brown-Shooting March

Coverage from Elizabeth City, North Carolina: The Daily Advance

Woman’s Disappearance Still a Mystery After 40 Years

Coverage from Florida Keys: Free Press

Betty Lynn, Mayberry’s Thelma Lou, Passes Away

Coverage from Mount Airy, North Carolina: Mount Airy News

Community Divided: Cache County School District Says Anti-Racist Video Shown During Sky View Assembly was Inappropriate

Coverage from Logan, Utah: The Herald Journal

Sports & Outdoors

The Kid with the Megawatt Smile

Coverage from Venice, Florida: Venice Gondolier

3 Magic Words, 1 Magic Title

Coverage from Anoka County, Minnesota: Union Herald

Mount Airy Captures Regional Tennis Championship

Coverage from Mount Airy, North Carolina:
Mount Airy News

A Man And The Leaf: Darby Carlson Has Been With Maple Grove Since the School’s Founding

Coverage from Coon Rapids, Minnesota: The Press & News

COVID-19

1918 to Now: How Idaho Weathers Pandemics

Coverage from Nampa, Idaho: Idaho Press

The Lost Year: Looking Back at a Year of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Coverage from Boone, North Carolina: Watauga Democrat

Covid Survivor Focuses On Recovery After Long Journey To Stay Alive

Coverage from Stanwood, Washington: Stanwood Camano News

Local Restaurant Owners Express Frustration at State’s Handling Of Closures and Restrictions

Coverage from East Central Minnesota: Forest Lake Times

Local Enterprise

Cattle Conundrum: High Feed Costs Heading into Winter, Promise of Better Prices to Come Have Ranchers in a Bind

Coverage from Idaho Falls, Idaho: Intermountain Farm & Ranch

2 Skagit County Mothers Sound Alarm On Fentanyl

Coverage from Mt. Vernon, Washington: Skagit Valley Herald

Where is the Owner Of Flight School That Trained 9/11 Pilots?

Coverage from Venice, Florida: Venice Gondolier

Finding A Home: Community Prevails At Bozeman Pond, Despite Misconceptions

Coverage from Bozeman, Montana: Daily Chronicle

Priced Out of the Market: Tight Local Housing Market Leaves Buyers with Few Options

Coverage from Pocatello, Idaho: Idaho State Journal

Struggling to Find Candidates as Police Officer Hiring Crisis Sets In

Coverage from East Central Minnesota: Forest Lake Times

Family, Friends Still Grieve Disappearance of Young Boise Woman 27 Years Later

Coverage from Nampa, Idaho: Idaho Press

Is Wyoming’s School Funding Model About to Fail?

Coverage from Cheyenne, Wyoming: Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Data & Investigations

Fields of Change: An Investigative Series Around the State of Public School Athletic Facilities

Coverage from Pocatello, Idaho: Idaho State Journal

Watauga County Sees More Deaths In 2020 Than Any In Previous 20 Years

Coverage from Boone, North Carolina: Watauga Democrat

Restoring the River: Groups Chart Complicated Path Forward for Stillaguamish Salmon

Coverage from Stanwood, Washington: Stanwood Camano News

Missing $41k in Jail Money is Simply Gone

Coverage from Ashland, Wisconsin: Ashland Daily Press

Special Reports

Project Klamath Saving A Watershed in an Era Of Climate Change

Coverage from More at Klamath Falls, Oregon: Herald and News | Reporter: Alex Schwartz; photographer: Arden Barnes; editor: Tim Trainor.

9/11 One Day, Twenty Years

Coverage from Athens, Ohio: Regional collaboration

Participating sites and contributors: The Athens NEWS (Editor Corinne Colbert), The Athens Messenger (Alex Hulvalchick), The Logan Daily News (Jim Phillips and Keri Johnson) The Circleville Herald (Emily Moore), the Vinton-Jackson Courier (Will Meyer), and the Pike County Watchman (Patrick Keck). Cover design by Laura Zielinski, Athens.

Working Waterfront Lovric’s Sea-Craft Survives Windstorm, But Other Challenges Remain

Coverage from Anacortes, Washington: Anacortes American | Story and art by Richard Walker

Reaching For Representation Prompted By Inequities, Local Campaign Efforts Strive For Change

Coverage from Cheyenne, Wyoming: Tribune Eagle | Reporters: Margaret Austin, Kathryn Palmer, Niki Kottmann, Hannah Black

Mark Adams

BEST OF ADAMS 2021

Community Journalism:

We Showed Up For A Big Job, Close To Home

Traci Bauer

Features Articles

Local News

Sports & Outdoors

COVID-19

Local Enterprise

Data & Investigations

Special Reports

Editorials

More Noteworthy Stories of 2021

Covid-19

Features

Local Enterprise

Local News

Sports/Outdoors