Hopatcong Grad Leads Newspaper to Slew of Awards

A Hopatcong High School graduate led a newspaper to a slew of honors.

David Danzis helmed The Youngstown Edition to 13 New Jersey Press Association awards, including a general excellence honor. Danzis also took a third-place prize for editorial writing.

“It is just a testament of all the hard work the staff has put into this paper,” said Danzis, editor-in-chief. “None of it would be possible without Professor (Matthew) Ayres and Dr. (Noel) Robinson.”

Ayres has been the advisor of the Youngtown for about four years and Robinson is coordinator of the Journalism Program at CCM.

The NJPA’s New Jersey College Newspaper Contest is judged by professional journalists in the state.

A consistent award-winner, Youngtown last year also had several first place winners, including Diaz and Danzis.  Also last year, the newspaper was awarded Gold Medalist status from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, marking the third time in the last 10 years that Youngtown had achieved that status.

In addition, the newspaper in 2010 was awarded All-Columbian Honors for Writing and Editing, Graphic Presentation and Business Operations. All-Columbian Honors are given when a publication is ranked in the 95th percentile or higher in each category.