Island Free Press wins seven North Carolina Press Association Awards, including Public Service Award

September 21, 2024 | Island Features

The IFP team at the NCPA Convention in Raleigh on Sept 19. From left to right: Owner/Publisher Donna Barnett, Photographer Don Bowers, Editor Joy Crist.

The North Carolina Press Association (NCPA) recently held its annual convention in Raleigh, North Carolina, on September 19-20, and the Island Free Press (IFP) was honored to take home seven awards for work published between March 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024, which included the NCPA’s special Public Service Award.

The Public Service Award is given to one newspaper in each division – daily newspapers, non-daily newspapers, and online – and “recognizes a distinguished example of meritorious public service of a newspaper to its local community, reflecting exceptional courage or enterprise.” Joy Crist of the IFP won the Public Service Award for the state’s Online Division for her 2024 coverage of the contamination issues at Buxton Beach.

Buxton on March 27. Photo by Don Bowers.

Don Bowers earned three NCPA awards, which included a third-place win for Feature Photography for the annual Blessing of the Fleet event in Hatteras Village, a third-place award for General News Photography for his coverage of Buxton Beach deterioration, and a first-place award for Spot Photography for images he captured during a March 2024 storm.

Crist also won a second-place award in the Editorials category, while co-founder and publisher Donna Barnett won third-place awards for magazine or niche publications for her supplemental area guides, as well as in the advertising category.

The North Carolina Press Association was established in 1873, and is one of the oldest organizations of its kind in the United States. The NCPA is a member-owned and operated nonprofit group that helps to maintain high industry standards, represents the interests and rights of established newspapers throughout the state, and promotes literacy and education through the N.C. Press Foundation (NCPF).

NCPA’s annual contest is one of the largest in the country, with over 4,000 entries from over 125 newspapers and news organizations in the 2023-2024 contest.