Central Oregonian winner of multiple journalism awards

Published 1:01 pm Wednesday, July 30, 2025

The Central Oregonian staff had reason to celebrate recently when awards were given out for the Pacific Northwest News Publishing Contest. Your local newspaper not only received several individual awards and staff-wide recognition, the 2025 contest was the first to expand beyond Oregon and include entries from Washington and Idaho, adding a little extra reason for celebrating the awards.

Starting with awards won by the late and great sports reporter Lon Austin, whose awards reflect work done during the 2024 calendar year, he won first and second place in Best Sports Photo, second place for Best Photo Essay and second place for Best Sports Story. In addition, photos he took at the Airshow of the Cascades for the Madras Pioneer helped that newspaper win first place for Best Photo Essay.

Managing Editor Jason Chaney took first place for Best Local Column, Best Feature – Personality and Best Feature – General. He also won a second-place award for Best Feature – General as well as second place for Best Editorial.

The Central Oregonian staff also won second place in the General Excellence category, which takes into consideration the entirety of the newspaper from stories to advertising to photos to overall content.

The Central Oregonian staff is not only grateful for the recognition, but we are grateful to our readers who support our work. We thank you all and will continue to strive to provide you with quality local news.