BDN wins best daily Maine newspaper award
By Paul Koenig, Bangor Daily News Staff
The Bangor Daily News was named the state’s best daily newspaper for the second year in a row at the Maine Press Association’s annual conference Saturday in South Portland.
Longtime BDN cartoonist George Danby was also inducted into the MPA’s hall of fame at a luncheon earlier in the day, and Paula Brewer, the BDN’s deputy state editor, was honored with the Unsung Hero Award.
“This is a testament to the hard work of so many incredible and talented newsroom employees,” Dan MacLeod, executive editor of the BDN, said after accepting the association’s top daily newspaper award. “Our readers deserve the best, and we’re proud to serve them.”
In awarding BDN the top prize, contest judges from the New Jersey Press Association and other press associations around the country wrote, “This is a textbook example on what a newspaper of the daily variety should be.”
STUCK ON THEIR PRINCIPAL — SeDoMoCha School students use duct tape to adhere Principal Adam Gudroe to the gym wall during an assembly in June 2024. Gudroe took part in the stunt as a reward for grade level improvements on the school’s NEWA test scores. The story headline “SeDoMoCha students stick it to the principal” earned first place in the feature headline category and second place for news headlines in the Maine Press Association’s 2025 MPA Better Newspaper Contest. The Piscataquis Observer’s Stuart Hedstrom earned eight awards, including three first place honors.
Brewer, who works in the BDN’s Presque Isle office, joined the news organization in 2013.
“Good reporting doesn’t just tell a town about itself. It also gives it meaning and creates an irreplaceable connection among the people who live there,” MacLeod said when presenting Brewer with her award. “But that only happens because of people like Paula.”
The Houlton Pioneer Times, now part of The County newspaper, was awarded the top general excellence prize for its weekly division. “The Houlton Pioneer Times offers in-depth, well-sourced reporting and long-form enterprise pieces that explore the real impact of local news,” said judges.
For The County, reporter Kathleen Phalen Tomaselli won 13 awards, including four 1st-place nods; reporter Chris Bouchard won eight, including three 1st place; and Brewer had 23, including six 1st place. Honors also went to page designers Yvonne Tardie and Josh Kaufmann, as well as outdoors columnist Bill Graves.
Reporter Stuart Hedstrom won eight honors for his work at the Piscataquis Observer, Dover-Foxcroft’s weekly newspaper, including three 1st-place nods.
The BDN’s editorial board won the award for best writing in the editorial category. Danby was honored as the top editorial cartoonist, and editorial page editor Susan Young won best writing in the columnist category.
Danby published his first cartoon in the BDN in 1975 as a student at Bangor High School. He went on to draw for the Providence Journal-Bulletin and the New Haven Register before returning to the BDN in 1985.
His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time and USA Today.
“George does not shy away from controversial topics or searing commentary through his art. Yet, his cartoons always aim to elevate Maine, to remind us of our humanity and our bond to one another,” Young wrote in her nomination letter. “He is of the old school philosophy that we can disagree with one another without being disagreeable, without taking the criticism personally.”
Journalists, editors and advertising representatives from other out of state publications judged contest entries from weekly and daily newspapers throughout the state. A complete list of 2025 award winners is posted on the MPA’s website at www.mainepressassociation.org.