The Evangelist wins three Catholic Media Awards

The Evangelist won three awards and the Diocese of Albany Office of Communications won three awards — all first place — from the Catholic Press Association during the recent 2020 Virtual Catholic Media Conference.

The Evangelist won second place in Best Headline for “Cardinal Sin,” a Catholic News Service story about disgraced Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and second place for Best Seasonal Issue, which was the “Year in Review” edition. The Evangelist also won an honorable mention for Best Redesign of the newspaper.

“We are honored to have won these awards against such great competition across the United States and Canada,” said Mike Matvey, editor of The Evangelist. “We will continue to work to bring the faithful of the Diocese of Albany the best possible product, whether it is in print or online.”

For the best headline award, the judges said about the headline written by Matvey: “This is very, very sharp. It’s the best of two-part headlines. The first is bold and clever and the second part is explanatory. It’s a fantastic 1-2 punch.” 

The Year in Review issue was designed by Brenda Powell with articles by Emily Benson, Franchesca Caputo and Matvey. “The issue has several articles that relate to its topic of reviewing 2019’s published highlights. The Stories of the Year section is particularly eye catching and interesting,” the judges said.

The Office of Communications’ three first-place awards were: Best Use of Social Media for Breaking News: First Place, “Honored to Serve” (Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger, Diocese of Albany Communications Office and Mary DeTurris Poust, communications director), Best Use of Photos in Social Media: First Place, “A Day in the Life of a Seminarian in the Eternal City” (Diocese of Albany Communications Office and Matthew Duclos), and Best Diocesan Pastoral Message — Letter: First Place, “This Is My Body” (Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger, Diocese of Albany Communications Office, and Kathryn Costello, designer).

The Best Use of Social Media for Breaking News award was for the Diocese’s coverage of the Buffalo news conference during which Bishop Scharfenberger was announced as the new Apostolic Administrator of that diocese.

“The Diocese of Albany showed preparation and resourcefulness when they needed to quickly break news about their leadership,” the judges said. “These social media posts showed strong use of video, including live video on Facebook Live, and covered a range of platforms. They also had strong engagement from their audience.”

For the Best Use of Photos in Social Media award, the judges said: “The first-place entry rose to the top of a relatively weak category. Having the individual take over the Instagram account was a really creative way to show content not normally seen. It also increased engagement to a whole new audience. And it was fun!” For the project, Seminarian Matt Duclos took over the Diocese’s Instagram account and chronicled a day of his life in Rome.

For the Best Diocesan Pastoral Message Award, the judges said: “Excellent writing and narrative development. Clear, concise and engaging messaging makes this product highly effective. Extremely well designed with professional media and layout concepts.”

The awards were announced via YouTube on July 2.