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The Dominion Post won 25 statewide awards for advertising and editorial content for 2025. The DP competes in Division 1, the category with the largest circulation numbers among West Virginia newspapers.
Advertising
Advertising manager Sabrina Ulrich won two first-place awards in this year's contest: Best Single Black and White Ad Quarter Page or Less for Hilleary Family Dentistry – Back to School teeth and Best Special Section with graphic artist Eric Tomlinson and paginator Trista Thurston for MCCAC’s 20th anniversary edition. Ulrich also won a second-place award for Best Political Ad with graphic artist Paul Baird for Stephanie Hunt for City Council.
Advertising account executive Jamie Nelson won a first-place award for Best Color Ad Quarter Page or Less for Walmart Car Show and and a third-place award for Best Single Black and White Ad Quarter Page or Less for Animal Friends.
Advertising account executive Steven Merrifield won a second-place nod for Best Single Black and White Ad Larger than a Quarter Page for Acropolis.
Classified manager Pam Tuscano won third place for Best Promotion of Public Notice for Carye Blaney – Notice to Creditors.
In addition, the Dominion Post advertising team took second place for Best Theme Page(s) for their Leading Ladies pages.
The team achieved third place for Overall Excellence in Advertising.
Editorial
Sports editor Justin Jackson earned first-place recognition as Best Sports Columnist for columns titled "Driven by passion: Sabins’ reaction to ejection," "What has Rod done to earn our trust" and "C-B needs LaPoe."
Photographer and audience developer Benjamin Powell took first place as Division I’s Best Photographer/Videographer and a third-place nod for Best Lifestyles Feature for an article entitled "Taking its cue from history: The Met keeps Morgantown’s history alive."
Former managing editor Joe Hauger won a first-place award for Best Headline Writing with “Praise the roof,” “Fighting Grime” and “Tie a bow on it,” while editor Candace Wolf won third place in the same category for “Fed up with Fedex,” “Visions of Progress” and “Soon to be penny-less.”
Staff writer Jim Bissett took home two first-place awards: Best News Feature for “1985 Election Day flood: 40 years later” and Best Coverage of Breaking News for “Assessing the aftermath: Father’s Day flood.”
Two special sections received first-place honors: Mohawk Bowl, by Jackson and high school sports writer Michael Griffith; and Guide to Summer, by Wolf and graphic artist Eric Tomlinson. Another special section, “Take Me Home: The Return of Rich Rodriquez to WVU Football,” won a second-place award for Best Sports Special Section, by WVU sports writer Spencer Ripchik, Jackson and Tomlinson.
Photographer Ron Rittenhouse earned three awards. His photo “Motorcyclist injured in crash” won first-place for Best News Photography, and “Keeping cool at the pool” and “Assessing the aftermath” won third-place awards for Feature Photography and News Photography, respectively.
Other editorial awards include:
• Griffith with a third place in Best Sports News and Feature Reporting for “There’s no place like home: Loyalty at the top of the list for Preston QB Slaton Manko.”
• Wolf with a third-place award for Best Front Page for the March 30, 2025, edition.
• The DP staff was credited with second-place awards for Best Single Issue from August 15, 2025, and for Best Newspaper Design for the March 8, 2025, and the November 4, 2025 issues.
The team achieved second place for Overall Excellence in Editorial.
The awards were conveyed to the winners on Saturday, Oct. 17, at the West Virginia Press Association Convention at the University of Charleston.
The contest occurs annually through the West Virginia Press Association. This year, Minnesota Press Association acted as judges of the West Virginia newspaper entries.