Dan's Papers Wins 2 Folio Awards

The Fair Media Council, a Bethpage-based nonprofit media watchdog group, honored Dan’s Papers with Folio Awards for its coverage of local news and the arts during a virtual ceremony on April 23.

Taylor K. Vecsey, editor in chief of Behind The Hedges, Dan’s Papers sister magazine that covers real estate, won a Folio for Public Policy News for her story in Dan’s Papers titled “Shinnecocks’ Cry for Protection of Unmarked Graves Finally Answered” about the Town of Southampton’s moratorium on development on Native American burial grounds. And David Taylor, Dan’s Papers associate editor, won a Folio for Arts & Culture News for his story “All Eyes on Bonac Blind: Art Sparks Vandalism & Conversation” about an art installation that served as a commentary on the lack of affordable housing in the Hamptons. 

“I could not be more proud of this team, which continues to build on a long history of independent, quality local journalism,” said Timothy Bolger, editor in chief of Dan’s Papers.

The honors come after Schneps Media, the parent company of Dan’s Papers, recently won a total of 49 awards in the New York Press Association’s annual Better Newspaper Contest. Dan’s Papers took home 10 prizes and four honorable mentions in that contest.

The Folio Awards recognize quality news on the Long Island hyperlocal, New York Metro and national news levels. The Folio judging process provides the tools and techniques to pull apart news stories and foster critical thinking and deductive reasoning skills, to enable the judges to navigate today’s complicated media landscape with ease. The judging process and the results bring to life FMC’s mission to advocate for quality news and to create a media-savvy society.

“It was an incredibly hard year for everyone, just to get through the pandemic,” said Fair Media Council CEO and Executive Director Jaci Clement. “But amazingly, this year’s Folio entries reflected the highest quality of work by news outlets and media creators that we’ve seen in the past two decades. That made for an incredibly robust competition, but it also denotes a greater force at play, which is this: Despite all the issues with a changing business model and working remotely due to the pandemic, news has found its groove. And that means we all win.”