Rockton-Roscoe News wins 3rd place in Northern Illinois News Association contest
This was the team's first award, competing against news outlets across the northern part of Illinois.
Rockton-Roscoe News won 3rd place for General Excellence (website) in the 2024 Northern Illinois News Association contest. The annual award banquet was hosted by the Department of Communication at Northern Illinois University on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 in the Sky Room on the NIU campus. The Northern Illinois News Association has represented professional journalists in the state's 26 northernmost counties since 1962.
First place went to the 152 year old suburban Chicago Daily Herald, the third-largest newspaper in Illinois. The judges from the NIU journalism department noted, “The depth of news, photos, videos and commentary is impressive. Tough to top.” They received 28 awards this year.
Second place was the Evanston RoundTable, who received 32 awards at the dinner, including 12 first place awards. Founded in 1998 as a twice monthly newspaper, they became a non-profit online-only publication, now with 2,400 donors and 1.3 million visitors.
Rockton-Roscoe News has 26 regular donors and 35,000 visitors. It was founded in 2021. This was the team's first award.
The General Excellence/Web, Combined category includes both daily and non-daily publications. Other winners at this year's awards included the Quad Cities Business Journal, Chronicle Media, and Rockford-area freelance journalist Lynne Conner.
