The Seattle Medium Newspaper took home three awards during the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s (NNPA) 2021 Messenger Awards, which recognizes the “the best of the best” among the NNPA’s 230 member publications.
The Seattle Medium won first place in the Best Original Advertising category for their 25 Alive Campaign, which, in partnership with the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, promoted and encouraged members of the community to support local, Black owned businesses by spending at least $25 per week with one of more businesses.
As it relates to digital presence and innovation, The Seattle Medium was once again recognized as one of the best Black newspaper websites in the country as they took second place in the category for website excellence. In addition, the Seattle Medium won third place honors for community service.
‘It is truly an honor to be recognized by your peers,” said Chris B. Bennett, CEO of Tiloben Publishing Co., Inc., the parent company of The Seattle Medium. “These awards are highly competitive and I’m so happy that our staff is being recognized for their hard work – especially the work that they’ve done over the last year in a pandemic.”
While it is an honor to win any national award from the NNPA, Bennett says that he is extremely proud of the honors they received for the 25 Alive Campaign because of the impact it had on the local business community.
“I’m really excited about the recognition we received for the 25 Alive Campaign,” said Bennett. “This campaign was implemented during a time when many of our local business owners were struggling financially, mentally and, in some cases, physically, and it really helped motivate many business owners in the area as the community rallied behind them both financially and spiritually throughout some of the darkest days of the pandemic. Although we ended the campaign in February, many people in our community are still regularly supporting our businesses to this day.”
According to Bennett, many newspapers across the county did a lot of great work, which made this year’s awards very competitive. While the pandemic made things very difficult for Black newspapers across the country, many of them adapted and raised the bar as it relates to innovation, quality, and utilizing different platforms to serve their respective communities. Something that Bennett says will inspire the staff at The Seattle Medium to continue to evolve, innovate and make improvements to the paper in an effort to better serve the community.
“We work hard every day to make sure we put forth a product that our community can be proud of, and these awards should be a sense of pride for everyone in our community,” says Bennett. “But life is about learning and improving, and that’s what we intend to do as a newspaper.”
“Our goal is always to be one of the best newspapers in the country,” added Bennett. “Our community deserves a quality product and their expectations drive us to continually improve it. Any recognition that we receive is a direct result of the tremendous support that we receive from the community and our ability to make sure that they see a return on their investments every time our papers hit the streets.”
