Arianna Grainey of the Arizona East Valley office won
three awards — including Photographer of the Year — during the 2016 Arizona
Newspapers Association Better Newspaper Contest. “The honor is well-deserved
and I’m very proud of you,” Arizona President Bret McKeand wrote to Ari in a
congratulatory e-mail to Arianna.
The 2016 Better Newspaper Contest features the best
journalism in Arizona with this year featuring the work of 50 newspapers, seven
high schools and a total of 1,631 submissions. The awards ceremony was
Saturday, Sept. 24.
In addition to Photographer of the Year, Arianna took
home two other awards including a first place finish for Best Sports Photograph
for “Light in motion” and a third place finish in the same category for “Will
he be safe?”
The categories for these awards fell in the non-daily
greater than 10,000 circulation.
The East Valley Office of Independent Newsmedia publishes
two weekly newspapers and subsequent websites — the Apache Junction/Gold Canyon
Independent and Queen Creek/San Tan Valley Independent. The office also covers
Chandler, Gilbert and Mesa online. The award-winning photos were featured in
the Mesa paper, which is no longer published.
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| Arianna with awards
Photographer Arianna Grainey of the group’s East Valley
office serving, Apache Junction, Gold Canyon, Queen Creek and Mesa, took home
the coveted photographer of the year award from the Arizona Newspaper
Association.
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1st place photo winner (gymnast):
Arianna merged nine frames she shot of a gymnast into one
with this layered photo. It won first place in the Best Sports Photograph
division.
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3rd place photo winner (baseball):
Arianna captured the uncertainty of a baseball play with
her photo titled “Will he be safe?” Taken during a Oakland Athletics spring
training game held in Mesa, Arizona, it won third place in the Best Sports
Photograph division.
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