Judges bestow honors on The Republican staff, daily and Sunday editions
Two reporters with The Republican were recognized Friday for producing some of the best journalism in New England. And the paper itself was cited as "distinguished" for both its weekday and Sunday editions.
The honors were awarded by the New England Newspaper & Press Association. The industry trade group holds two yearly contests that receive entries from newsrooms in all six New England states.
For the second year in a row, the association's judges decided that The Republican 's weekday editions earned the newspaper the "distinguished" label, one step below the winning honor of "Newspaper of the Year."
For 2025, the competition extended that same honor to The Republican's Sunday editions, based on two dates reviewed.
The Maine Sunday Telegram won the top honor for Sunday and The Berkshire Eagle won top prize for weekday editions. The awards were presented during a lunch celebration at the Hotel Northampton.
The competition also invites entries for the association's Publick Occurrences award — considered to be the best journalism produced in New England in the contest period. The contest is named for the first newspaper published in America, before the American Revolution. Four days after its first edition, in 1690, Publick Occurrences was shut down by the royal governor of the Massachusetts colony.
The Republican was the only daily newspaper in New England to receive three Publick Occurrences awards.
"It is immensely gratifying to have judges from other states see the value of our reporters' work," said Larry Parnass, The Republican's executive editor.
Greta Jochem, investigations editor for The Republican, won two such honors, one for her in-depth report on deficiencies of the former Highview Nursing Home in Northampton and another for her examination, in collaboration with NEPM reporter Dusty Christensen, of civil asset forfeiture.
That coverage — headlined "Robin Hood or legalized theft?" — "was truly eye-opening," the contest judges said. "Through their sources and reporting, they exposed a system by which Massachusetts police can take property such as cars from private citizens on the thinnest of justifications. … Jochem and Christensen showed that the system seems designed to keep the property for the benefit of law enforcement budgets, with little direct notification of owners."
The Publick Occurrences judges — made up of a focus group of ordinary citizens — also recognized The Republican's special project "Hard Times," by freelance reporter Patrick O'Connor of Holyoke. The judges called O'Connor's May report " a package of important stories about the challenges for young people growing up " in communities like Springfield and Holyoke.
Of Jochem's nursing home coverage, the review panel found that the stories "had all the data, but more importantly lent voices to the horrible conditions with interviews from past patients and their families. … The appalling conditions, as tough as they were to read, serve as clear warning to those who are looking to place loved ones in nursing care …."
Jochem's coverage of Highview, which preceded the institution's closing later in 2024, was also honored by the association with a new cash award from the A-Mark Foundation, one of three such awards for journalism in Massachusetts.
The top award in the A-Mark Foundation was given to Hadley Barndollar, an investigative reporter for MassLive, for her coverage of the problem of easily obtained pill presses. That coverage, which also appeared in The Republican, received a Publick Occurrences honor, as well.
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