by Valerie Hurley ·
Friday, March 20, 2026
Reporters Julie Gowel and Heidi Gómez pose with their first-place awards. (Courtesy photo)
For the second time in four years, the Harvard Press won first place among small New England weeklies for general excellence in the annual Better Newspaper Competition hosted by the New England Newspaper & Press Association. The Press was selected from among 10 weekly newspapers with circulations of up to 5,000 and accepted the award March 14 at NENPA’s 2026 New England Newspaper Convention held this year in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Press reporters and a photographer also won first and second place awards across several categories. Heidi Gómez won first place in the commentary category for her piece, “Dissed-abled,” on the obstacles faced by wheelchair users in Harvard. Julie Gowel won first place for her reporting on the work of Loaves & Fishes in meeting the rising need for food assistance among area families.
John Osborn, Joan Eliyesil, and Marty Green were second in the health reporting category for their coverage of the closing of Nashoba Valley Medical Center, which included a collaboration with journalism students at Fitchburg State University. And Jen Manell earned silver in the feature photography category for her photo of a little girl sitting on her mom’s shoulders reaching for a book at a school book fair.
Lisa Aciukewicz, co-owner of the Harvard Press with Sue Robbins, said she is proud of the staff. “Our paper may be small but our impact is big,” she said. Aciukewicz cited Joan Eliyesil’s 2024 story, which explained the reasons for Harvard’s disproportionately large opioid settlement, as an example of an article that significantly affected the broader community: The town ultimately formed a working group to share some of its windfall with neighboring communities.
In selecting a weekly for general excellence, judges are asked to consider the quality and variety of the writing and reporting in news stories, features, and on the editorial page. Judges also consider the paper’s presentation, including use of photos, headlines, and typography, as well as page layout and the presence of substantial advertising.
According to NENPA’s executive director, Linda Conway, the annual newspaper convention is the largest gathering of journalists in the six-state New England region. “Hundreds of journalists joined us over [last] weekend to learn new skills and celebrate excellence in journalism,” she told the Press. The Harvard Press vied with three other papers for top honors. The Vermont Standard in Woodstock and The Martha’s Vineyard Times tied for second place, while the Mount Desert Islander in Bar Harbor, Maine, took third.