The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News picked up 15 awards last Thursday during the Iowa Newspaper Association's Better Newspaper Contests.

News editor Nick Pedley won first place honors for Best Breaking News Photo, Best COVID-19 Coverage and Excellence in Editorial Writing. The Sentinel-News also won third place for General Excellence, which is given to the Top 3 newspapers in their respective classes that accrue the most award points.

The newspaper won awards in the following categories:

• Coverage of Education, second place

• Coverage of Business, second place

• Best Newspaper Website, second place

• Best News Photo, second place and third place

• Best Breaking News Photo, first place

• Best Breaking News Story, third place

• Best Personality Feature Story, second place

• Best Series, second place

• Excellence in Editorial Writing, first place, second place and third place

• Best Continuing Coverage, second place

NICK PEDLEY/SENTINEL-NEWS

This photo of the George Floyd protests in Spencer earned second place in the Best News Photo category.

• Best COVID-19 Coverage, first place

• General Excellence, third place

The Sentinel-News is owned by the Press, Inc., of Ocheyedan, and competes in Weekly Class 2 (circulation 911-1,500). This year's competition was judged by the Maryland, Delaware and District of Columbia Press Association. Approximately 3,000 entries in dozens of categories were judged by class, based on circulation.

Several other northwest Iowa newspapers received awards for their work during the contest. The Iowa City Daily Iowan was again named Newspaper of the Year, which goes to the newspaper that accrues the most award points during the competition. It marked the second-straight year the Daily Iowan took home the honor.