Best of 2023 - Adams Publishing Group

Heavy lift coming in 2024. But first, let’s applaud some great work from 2023.

Disruption across the news industry has been constant since any of us has been in the business, and 2023 was no exception. It’s against this backdrop that I continue to be amazed at the focus on serving communities that our local news organizations have sustained.

As I traveled across the company in the past year to meet with the local teams, I saw firsthand the energy and passion in your plans as you strategize for growth and impact. There were frustrations, to be sure, and questions about when our industry would stabilize enough to allow better traction and consistency in resources.

We’re working hard toward that day. A stronger local news business assures a stronger democracy, and never has that been more important.

In the past year, I continued to work with other local news company leaders in the fight for fair compensation from big tech as they continue to profit from our local content. We have reason to hope for more progress on that front in 2024.

Meanwhile, APG has made changes in the workflow, allowing local news operations to focus on creating content, and our sales teams to focus on building relationships and selling marketing solutions in the local business communities.

In 2023 we:

finished the build-out of centralized pagination and moved a significant amount of our special section and ad design to a central, specialized APG team.
consolidated solutions for audience development and customer service.
introduced new digital solutions and training to the sales team toolboxes.

Decisions on the journalism are, and will continue to be, in the hands of local and regional editors, the people who know their communities well.

In 2024, we will use our new infrastructure to serve external clients in the pagination and design centers. We’ll continue to be a competitive solution in commercial printing, and we’ll introduce new ways to build and retain our subscriber base. We’ll work to strengthen the expertise for growth on the sales side.

Before we get too far into the new year, however, I invite you to spend some time with the best work from our newsrooms in 2023. It really sets the stage for an exciting 2024.

Mark Adams

President & CEO

View Letter from Traci Bauer, APG Vice President of Content

Data, Investigations and Accountability

Land Purchase Raises Concern in Dunn County

Coverage from Leader-Telegram: Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Failed Fire Inspection, Alarm Problems Among Issues Documented at Highland High School Prior to Devastating Blaze

Coverage from Idaho State Journal: Pocatello, Idaho

Nearly 1,400 School, Sheriff’s Office and Government Workers Top $100,000 Salaries

Coverage from Southern Maryland News: La Plata, Maryland

Editorials

What Independence Day Means to Active Duty Military and Veterans

Coverage from County News Review: Coon Rapids, Minnesota

Call to the Pen: Remembering the One and Only Steve Behr

Coverage fromThe Avery Journal Times: Newland, NC

You Ever Wonder Why They Call it ‘Breaking’ News?

Coverage from Glendive Ranger-Review: Glendive, Montana

Local Enterprise

‘A Lot We Don’t Know: Montana Mycologists, Foragers Talk Morel Mushrooms Following Deaths This Spring

Coverage from Bozeman, Montana: Bozeman Daily Chronicle

The Right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: Do WYO, LGBTQ+ Youth Have It?

Coverage from Cheyenne Wyoming: Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Finding a Successor: Skagit County Farmers Make Plans for the Future

Coverage from Mount Vernon, Washington: Skagit Valley Herald

Boise Students Say Assault Claims Often Met with Silence

Coverage from Nampa, Idaho: Idaho Press

60 Years After Martin Luther King Jr. Speech, Local Leaders Reflect on What Has Been Accomplished

Coverage from Easton, Maryland: Star-Democrat

‘There is a Romanticism to Montana’

Coverage from Laurel, Montana: The Laurel Outlook

Local News

Interstate Pileup Involved 85 Vehicles, No Fatalities

Coverage from Janesville, Wisconsin: The Gazette

Nightmare Becomes Reality: Man Attacks, Kidnaps Elderly Clients

Coverage from Venice, Florida: The Daily Sun

Mother Described Struggle to Help Meth-Addicted Son

Coverage from Greeneville, Tennessee: The Greeneville Sun

‘Udder Chaos’ in Livingston

Coverage from Livingston, Montana: The Livingston Enterprise

400,000 Gallons of Water Contaminated with Radioactive Tritium Leaked from Monticello Nuclear Power Plant

Coverage from Coon Rapids, Minnesota: Monticello Times

Nightmare on Highway 169

Coverage from Coon Rapids, Minnesota: Elk River Star

Features

Community Harvest: Ailing Farmer Gets Boost from Rural Tradition in Gem County

Coverage from Nampa, Idaho: Emmett Messenger Index

Peregrines Return to Ashland

Coverage from Ashland, Wisconsin: Ashland Daily Press

Turning 100: Ellensburg Woman Reflects on a Century of Adventure

Coverage from Ellensburg, Washington: Daily Record

When the Water Recedes

Coverage from Bozeman, Montana: Daily Chronicle

Historic Gravesite of Millie Ringold Located

Coverage from Stanford, Montana: Judith Basin Press

Sniffin’ Sleuths: Fire Investigator Partners withh New Arson Detection Dog

Coverage from Elkton, Maryland: Cecil Whig

Special Reports

Season to Remember: Anacortes High School’s First State Football Championships

Coverage from Mount Vernon, Washington: Skagit Valley Herald

News Leader Among Idaho Readers

Coverage from Boise/Nampa, Idaho: Idaho Press

Mental Health in America

Coverage from Across the APG Network

Sports & Outdoors

Born to Run: Brule Musher Conquers Iditarod a Year After Crash

Coverage from Ashland, Wisconsin: Ashland Daily Press

Grief Despite Victory: Melander, Nelson Remembered After New Year’s Day Snowmobile Accident

Coverage from Coon Rapids, Minnesota: County News Review

FEARLESS: Riddle ‘Stared Adversity in the Face’ and Now has Highland in Contention for Another State Title

Coverage from Pocatello, Idaho: Idaho State Journal

BEST OF ADAMS 2023

Our ‘Best’ puts a unique lens on the story of nation’s communities

Identifying our “best” is a subjective and fascinating assignment. Who’s doing the picking? What are their standards and their styles? What are the circumstances, the challenges, the resources, the opportunities involved?

Across our industry there are awards programs that recognize the best, with prizes for those who meet specific standards. There are various qualitative critiques and a growing number of quantitative tools that can identify our “best” journalism. Indeed, APG has its own contests and cash award recipients will be recognized later this month.

What I love about the Best of Adams showcase, however, is that editors across the company are tasked with entering two pieces of journalism that represent their newsroom’s best work. It’s always fun to discover what rises to the top in each editor’s assessment of a year’s portfolio.

Some editors put forth work that demonstrates dogged pursuit of information and skillful navigation of public documentation and source development. Other editors send in beautifully told feature stories.

In the end, we’re left with more than 150 pieces that are a unique lens on life in small- and medium-size communities across the U.S. Beach towns and mountain towns, shore towns, college towns, state capitals and a big chunk of the Midwest.

It was a pleasure to read all the 2023 submissions, and these pages highlight several of them. I do have a few favorites, even among these bests.

Work that is revelatory and evokes community action: Idaho State Journal’s package by Shelbie Harris, which uncovered failed inspections and alarm problems that were documented prior to a devastating fire at a local high school.
Stories that deliver a strong sense of place: There are several examples of this throughout the showcase, but one that was particularly well done was from the Emmett Messenger Index in Idaho. Del Gray told the story of how a community came together to help an ailing farmer with the harvest, despite difficult workloads on their own farms.
Urgency around a national story: Kudos to the southern Wisconsin journalists for impressive hustle and teamwork following an 85-car pileup on a major interstate in the Janesville/Beloit area. Overcoming challenges with accessing the scene, the news team posted 66 updates in the nine hours after the event.

Please take some time to follow the links to some of these stories from your colleagues. This showcase presents journalism taken out of its original context, borrowed from the communities it serves and curated into a collection representing the APG network’s strength on the local news landscape.