The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News picked up six awards April 28 during the Iowa Newspaper Association's Better Newspaper Contests.

News editor Nick Pedley won first place in the Master Columnist category and the publication also took top honors for Best Website. Pedley won second and third place in the Excellence in Editorial Writing category, also earning a third place finish for Best Feature Photo for a picture of Dave Vander Broek and his beehive. Finally, Pedley and sports editor/staff writer Mike Petersen won third place in the Best COVID-19 Coverage category.

The Sentinel-News is published by The Press, Inc., of Ocheyedan, which is owned by Arlyn Pedley and Jan Reiste Pedley. The couple also owns and publishes the Ocheyedan Press-Melvin News, which earned four awards during the contest.

Nick Pedley, son of the publishers, won first place in the Best Breaking News Photo category for a picture of the Sibley train derailment in May of 2021. He also won second place in the same category for another photo of the accident.

Arlyn Pedley won second place in the Best News Photo category for a picture of cleanup efforts following the derailment. Overall, the father-son duo's collage of images took home second place in the Best Photo Story category.

This year's competition was judged by the Oklahoma Press Association. Approximately 2,500 entries in dozens of categories were judged by class, based on circulation. Both the Press-News and Sentinel-News compete in Weekly Class I (circulation under 841 subscribers).

Several other northwest Iowa newspapers received awards for their work during the contest. The Dubuque Telegraph Herald was named Newspaper of the Year, which goes to the newspaper that accrues the most award points during the competition.