Redwood Gazette reporter Joshua Dixon won a first place award at the annual Minnesota Newspaper Association convention on Thurs, Jan. 28.
“I’m very honored and humbled to receive this distinction from my peers,” I allegedly said.
Dixon won “Best Human Interest Story, Weeklies 3,001-5,000” for a Dec. 15, 2008 profile of then eighth-grade Rubik’s Cube expert Austin Abrahamson.
The judge’s comments about Dixon’s story read: “The reporter plays the role of bemused spectator. He delivers a playful, fun read that hooks the reader from the start and does not let go until the end. Entertaining.”
Dixon has previously won three other first place MNA awards, but those were all for photography.
“It’s about time,” Dixon reportedly muttered when finding out this year’s award was for actually writing something for a change.
Adding to Dixon’s surprise at being named a winner in the contest was the fact he never actually entered it.
The first he (I, we... whatever) heard he even had an entry in this year’s contest was when he got a letter from the MNA judges informing him he had won something.
“What the hey?” Dixon reportedly said.
It seems the deadline for entering this year’s MNA contest was several days after Dixon broke his foot walking Rufus the Wonder Dog through Ramsey Park last September.
When it came time to select and submit entries, Dixon didn’t feel like stumbling around the Gazette office on crutches, carrying piles of old newspapers between his teeth, and was in a foul and irritable mood anyway.
Dixon allegedly said, “Ah, the heck with it. I just won’t enter anything this year. Who needs it?”
Gazette publisher Pat Schmidt, making up for Dixon’s disappointing lack of initiative, went ahead and entered several of Dixon’s stories and photos anyway. He then forgot to mention to Dixon that he had done it.
This is two-for-two for Schmidt, who entered last year’s Gazette MNA first place award-winning entry on reporter Erik Posz’s behalf without bothering to inform Posz about it, either.
Former Gazette reporters Tad Johnson and Julie Buntjer, currently working at other newspapers, also won first place awards in different categories this year.
Since Johnson and Buntjer got their starts here, the Gazette cheerfully claims credit for their wins, too.
Dixon allegedly said he will use this award as inspiration to climb ever-higher challenges of journalistic integrity and responsibility.
“I’ll allegedly use this award as inspiration to climb ever-higher challenges of journalistic integrity and responsibility,” I said.
