Newsday's sports section honored with APSE national awards

Newsday earned five top-10 finishes in the annual Associated Press Sports Editors contest, placing in the top 10 nationally for team/locality beat writing, short feature, digital portfolio, special section and feature photo.

The results were announced at APSE’s winter conference, which took place last week in Las Vegas.

Four of Newsday’s five winning entries were honored in “Division A,” the largest circulation category in the nation. Newsday's baseball preview was honored in a combined “Divisions A & B” category for special section.

"This is a tremendous accomplishment and everyone in the sports department should be proud," Newsday sports editor Hank Winnicki said. "The competition is so tough, and this shows the great work we're doing across platforms."

Laura Albanese was honored in the team/locality beat writing category for her coverage of the Mets. The winning entry included her breaking news story on Edwin Diaz agreeing to a deal with the Dodgers, a game story on the Mets missing the playoffs on the final day of the regular season, an Only in Newsday deep dive into how Pete Alonso evolved into a complete hitter, and a column on how she became an accidental ballpark food critic.

"I'm so happy that Laura is being recognized among the top beat writers in the country," Winnicki said. "Her work is fantastic, and this honor is so well-deserved."

Neil Best won in the short feature writing category (less than 1,400 words) for his behind-the-scenes story on former New York Giants football players meeting with current San Francisco Giants baseball players in a spoof of a famous phone call on Mike Francesa's WFAN radio show.

The digital portfolio entry included five content items rich in multimedia. The entries included a video about a teenager from Valley Stream who paints customized cleats for MLB players, a timeline of St. John’s performances in the NCAA Tournament since Lou Carnesecca’s Final Four team in 1985 through Rick Pitino’s squad last season, our digital presentation of Newsday’s 48-page MLB season preview section, a day in the life of an NFL family on game day, and a Baseball Hall of Fame ballot that asked users to cast their own ballots.

The 2025 baseball preview section was a crystal ball designed as a spaceship of sorts that traveled into the new season. It featured extensive material on the Mets and their signing of Juan Soto, and how Aaron Judge would power the Yankees. An enterprise package entitled “Stars of Tomorrow” identified every MLB team’s most promising young player, and “Baseball 101,” the annual tutorial staple of the section, listed 101 things about the game that we have said goodbye to as a price paid for progress.

“We pushed the envelope a bit and had some fun with this one,” section editor Dave Whitehorn said. “This national recognition is a tribute to the talent and hard work of Newsday’s staff of reporters, editors, photographers, designers and researchers. They delivered another home run and should be proud of this award.”

In the feature photo category, Newsday won for Noah K. Murray's photo of Pete Alonso celebrating after a walk-off home run.