Newsday wins 3 prestigious honors in APSE contest

Newsday was awarded three prestigious national honors in The Associated Press Sports Editors annual contest this week, finishing in the top 5 for video and top 10 for special section and action photo.

The three entries were honored in the “A Division,” which is the largest circulation category in the country.

Newsday also received honorable mention for its print portfolio entry, which is a selection of daily and Sunday sections, and for its website.

“This is a tremendous accomplishment for the entire staff and highlights the quality and depth of our storytelling across platforms," said Hank Winnicki, Newsday's assistant managing editor for sports.

Newsday won for “Excellence in Video” for a profile on Long Beach High School star wrestler Dunia Sibomana-Rodriguez, who at the age of 6 was attacked by chimpanzees in a national park in Central Africa. Sibomana-Rodriguez survived but suffered horrific, disfiguring injuries to his lips and face. He became the Nassau County wrestling champion at 102 pounds as an eighth-grader and qualified for the New York state high school championships in Division I, the largest of four classifications, at the time of the video’s publication. Gregg Sarra was the reporter and narrator, Susan Yale and Jeff Basinger were the video editors, and Reece Williams, Bill Perlman, Tom Ferrara and John Williams were the videographers.

Newsday's feature story on Sibomana-Rodriguez, written by Sarra, was also honored on Thursday by the New York Association of Black Journalists for its 2023 Black Excellence Awards. The NYABJ selected it as a finalist for the Ida B. Wells Award for Excellence in Print Journalism.

Newsday’s baseball preview section was honored in the APSE's special section category. The section featured how the Mets went all-in to land prized ace Max Scherzer, a Mount Rushmore of Baseball — a monument of each team’s all-time top four players — and the 14th installment of the annual Baseball 101 tutorial, which was about debuts. It led off with Jackie Robinson’s historic first major-league game.

“The Baseball Preview is a labor-intensive project, planning of which begins months prior to publication,” section editor Dave Whitehorn said. “The fact that this section has once again been recognized nationally is a credit to the hard-working and talented group of Newsday designers, writers, photographers, editors and idea people.”

Jim McIsaac’s photo shows Oswaldo Cabrera of the Yankees dropping a pop-up hit by the Mets’ Pete Alonso after colliding with teammate Marwin Gonzalez.

Newsday’s print portfolio entry featured Jets wins over the Cleveland Browns and Green Bay Packers, Giants wins over the Baltimore Ravens and Carolina Panthers, coverage of the Yankees playing Cleveland in the ALDS, coverage of the Mets playing the San Diego Padres in the NL Wild Card series, Aaron Judge hitting his 59th home run and Super Bowl LVI coverage.