By Will Tuell

It was an historic evening at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Portland on Oct. 18 as The Machias Valley News Observer came away from the annual Maine Press Association awards gala with a total of 26 first, second, and third place honors in the small weekly news division. Our sister publication, The Calais Advertiser, took home 21 honors.

“By some gracious irony, in the year of our Lord 2025 — when truth is trimmed to fit our phone screens and attention spans are measured in seconds — our little corner of Maine has once again been reminded that ink, when honestly used, still holds its power,”  MVNO owner, managing editor and publisher Pierre Little said in an editorial following the awards ceremony. “The Maine Press Association saw fit to bestow upon The Calais Advertiser and Machias Valley News Observer 47 awards this year — a haul almost absurd for two community papers clinging to the old faith of facts and fairness with newsprint.” 

Reporter Paul Sylvain led the way for the MVNO with seven of the paper’s ten first place finishes. Sylvain’s coverage of the Christmas Eve 2024 fire that destroyed part of the Bluebird Motel in Machias and his retrospective of the 1988 double murder of Michael and Florence Phillips of Machiasport -- a story which he originally covered for The Bangor Daily News 35 years prior -- won him first place in the Spot (or Breaking) News and Courts Story categories, respectively. 

Sylvain also picked up first place in the community columnist category for his weekly “From Away & Back” column; the Critic’s Award for his review of a Bob Marley show at the University of Maine at Machias; and in the environmental story category for his coverage of toxic groundwater at the old Bucks Harbor Air Force radar site in Machiasport, along with two first place finishes in the photography division: one for a graphic he designed featuring Washington County election results in the graphics/illustration category, and one for a photo spread he and MVNO Graphics Designer Dylan Lingley developed featuring local musicians in the Specialty Page Design category. 

Newcomer Wendall “Doss” Dennison grabbed two first place finishes for the MVNO. Dennison’s sports column “Sports by Doss” took first place in the sports columnist category while his weekly devotional earned him first place in the Religion/Spirituality Story category. Another newcomer, Mark Brown, topped the Opinion Columnist category with his bi-weekly “We The People” column. 

The MVNO also received eight second place awards.  Sylvain grabbed two of the proverbial silver medals, one for his coverage of a Cuban American small business owner setting up shop in Machias in the Minority Community Issues category, and one in the Feature Story category on the history of the Bucks Harbor Shopping Mall. 

Contributor Will Tuell also picked up two second place nods -- one for his weekly “Downeast Dispatches” column and one in the Sports Headline category for highlighting Washington Academy’s 2024 appearance in the Class C North championship baseball game. Dennison, Sylvain, veteran sportswriter Phil Stuart, and Tuell shared second place for their revitalization of the paper’s sports section, while Stuart picked up second place in the Sports Profile category for his look back at four Washington County baseball players who made the major leagues. 

Lingley and graphic designer Cheryl Stabinski rounded out the silver awards with second place finishes in the Sports Page Design category for their layouts of the 2024 AOS 96 Cross Country championship meet, and Best Supplement Cover for his design of the paper’s 2024 High School Basketball tournament supplement cover respectively. 

The MVNO closed out the night with eight third place finishes, five of which went to Sylvain exclusively or in part. Sylvain, who drew upon a 19-year career in immigration enforcement, took third place in the Analysis category for his piece on birthright citizenship making its way to the Supreme Court. He also struck bronze in two photo categories -- People Photo for a photograph from the 2024 Machias Wild Blueberry Festival, and Sports Photo from the 2024 AOS 96 cross country race circuit. Sylvain’s headline for a 2024 feature on the Porter Memorial Library summer reading program also landed a third place finish, while he and Lingley shared third place in the Picture Story for their presentation of the 2024 Margaretta Day festival, and he and Little took third in the Editorial Section category. 

Former UMaine Machias faculty member Jon Reisman picked up third in the Opinion Columnist category for his weekly Freedom Studies column while Tuell took third in the Sports Headline category for “High Flying Hawks Move to 6-0” during the 2024 Machias Area Little League season. 

MPA awards were based on coverage from April 2024 to March 2025. Entries were judged by the Connecticut Press Association. Combined, Washington County’s two weekly newspapers picked up 47 first, second, or third place awards.