EAST PEORIA — The Ford County Chronicle won 29 awards — nine more than its closest competitor — to claim the coveted Will Loomis Memorial Trophy, which recognizes the best large nondaily newspaper in Illinois, in the Illinois Press Association’s annual Excellence in News contest for work published in 2024.
The Chronicle, established July 1, 2020, won its third sweepstakes trophy in its first four years of contest eligibility, previously having won the David B. Kramer Memorial Trophy in Division A, for nondailies with circulations of 1,000 and under, in 2022; and the Harold and Eva White Memorial Trophy in Division B, for nondailies with circulations of 1,001 to 2,500, in 2023.
Ford County Chronicle Co-Publishers Will Brumleve, left, and Andrew Rosten hoist the the Will Loomis Memorial Trophy, which recognizes the best large nondaily newspaper in Illinois, during Thursday’s annual Illinois Press Association convention and awards banquet at the Par-A-Dice Hotel & Casino in East Peoria.
This latest win in Division C — for nondailies with circulations exceeding 2,500 — happened a year after the Chronicle finished as runner-up in Division C in 2024, choosing to compete up a division despite having a circulation of only 1,700 with both print and online subscribers included.
This time, the Chronicle won the same number of awards that it did in 2024 — 29 — but ended up with a better result. With 10 first-place awards, five second-place awards, eight third-place awards and six honorable mention honors, the Chronicle’s total easily outpaced all other Division C papers, including last year’s division champion, The Hinsdalean, which had won the trophy for Division C in three consecutive years but received only 20 awards this year compared with 29 — the same number as the Chronicle — a year earlier.
Chronicle Co-Publishers Will Brumleve and Andrew Rosten won 19 and seven awards, respectively, in this year’s contest, with one of Brumleve’s awards shared with correspondent Mindy Basi. Basi also won one additional award, as did contributor Andy Hudson. The entire staff won the general excellence award, as well.
Brumleve and Rosten were notified back in April of how many awards their paper had won, but they had to wait until Thursday, when the Illinois Press Association’s annual convention was held at the Par-A-Dice Hotel & Casino in East Peoria, to learn how they placed in the contest’s 38 categories — and whether enough points would be scored to claim Division C’s top prize.
The Will Loomis Memorial Trophy — the largest of the trophies awarded to the contest’s six division winners — will be proudly displayed for the next year at the Chronicle’s downtown Paxton office. The trophy was established by the Cook County Suburban Publishers Association in 1949 in memory of William W. Loomis, former publisher of the LaGrange Citizen.
“We could not be more proud of this achievement,” Brumleve said. “We are thrilled to receive this recognition from our peers in the newspaper industry.”
Placing behind the Chronicle and The Hinsdalean were The Prairie Press of Paris in third place and the Wednesday Journal of Oak Park & River Forest in fourth place.
The Chronicle joined the IPA in July 2021, a year after its first edition was published. While previously employed by the now-defunct Ford County Record as news editor and sports editor, respectively, Brumleve and Rosten combined efforts to win Division A twice — in 2018 and 2019.
Brumleve’s awards
Brumleve, who serves as the Chronicle’s news editor, won eight first-place awards, four second-place awards, four third-place awards and three honorable mention honors.
Brumleve placed first in the categories of best investigative/enterprise reporting, government beat reporting, news reporting (series), news reporting (single story), headline writing, single page design, agricultural story/series and obituary tribute. He placed second in best coverage of taxation, government beat reporting, portrait/personality photo and business/economic reporting; third in the categories of best editorial page, the Freedom of Information Award and business/economic reporting; and honorable mention for best school board coverage, portrait/personality photo and obituary tribute.
Also, Brumleve and Basi teamed up to place third in the agricultural story/series category for a series of stories they wrote about a proposed carbon sequestration project near Gibson City.
Rosten’s awards
Rosten, who serves as the Chronicle’s sports editor, placed first in the category of best sports section; both second and fourth in the category of online photo series/gallery; third in the categories of headline writing and sports photo; and honorable mention in the categories of sports column and sports photo (portrait/personality).
Basi and Hudson awards
Hudson placed third in the category of distinguished coverage of diversity for a column he wrote about his teen son, who has Down syndrome. Basi’s solo award was a third-place honor in the category of obituary tribute for a story she wrote about the late James “Doc” Meyer.
Other contest winners
The IPA’s editorial contest features six circulation divisions, including three for nondaily newspapers and three for daily newspapers. Sweepstakes trophies are presented to the newspaper in each division that accumulates the highest number of points. Nearly 85 daily and nondaily newspapers competed this year, with members of the Georgia Press Association judging the nearly 1,700 editorial entries submitted.
In addition to the Chronicle in Division C, other sweepstakes trophy winners were:
— The Chicago Tribune, which won the Stuart R. Paddock Memorial Sweepstakes Trophy in Division F for large dailies, with the Daily Herald Media Group in second place and the Chicago Sun-Times in third.
— The News-Gazette of Champaign, which was awarded the Mabel S. Shaw Memorial Trophy in Division E for mid-size daily newspapers, with The Dispatch of Moline and The Rock Island Argus as runner-up. The Belleville News-Democrat placing third and The Pantagraph of Bloomington placing fourth.
— The Telegraph of Alton, which won the Patrick Coburn Award of Excellence Trophy in Division D for small daily newspapers, with The Daily Chronicle of DeKalb claiming second place, the Herald & Review of Decatur placing third and the Breeze-Courier of Taylorville finishing fourth.
— The Commercial-News of Danville, which won the Harold and Eva White Trophy in Division B for medium-sized nondaily newspapers, with second place going to the Community News Brief of Macomb, third place to the Riverside-Brookfield Landmark and fourth place to The Mendota Reporter.
— The Forest Park Review, which claimed ownership of the David B. Kramer Memorial Trophy in Division A for small, nondaily newspapers, with the El Paso Journal taking second place, the DuPage County Chronicle of Wheaton placing third and The Lexingtonian of Lexington claiming fourth.
The Illinois Press Association also named a statewide Editor of the Year and Reporter of the Year for a sixth consecutive convention. Named Editor of the Year was Tom Martin of The Dispatch/Rock Island Argus. The Reporter of the Year was Tom Loewy, also of The Dispatch/Rock Island Argus.
Advertising contest
In the Illinois Press Association’s annual advertising contest, The News-Gazette emerged as the top daily newspaper while The Hinsdalean was crowned the top large nondaily newspaper and the Cass County Star-Gazette of Beardstown the top small nondaily newspaper. Twenty-two newspapers submitted nearly 400 advertising contest entries, which were judged by members of the Georgia Press Association.
Also, Susie Pontius of The Leader-Union of Vandalia was named Advertising Sales Manager of the Year.