For the second consecutive year, Breeze journalists and ad staff racked up more than two dozen awards at the Virginia Press Association's annual statewide contest.
The Breeze and Breeze TV won 25 awards, including a Sweepstakes Award for advertising and a Best-in-Show for newspaper design. The staffs won a similar number the previous year.
The Advertising Sweepstakes Award goes to the media outlet that receives the most honors in its circulation size. The organization’s 10 individual advertising awards led to the Sweepstakes Award.
The Best-in-Show is awarded to the best entries from first-place winners and recognizes The Breeze’s newspaper’s overall design.
The groups, which competed against small-to-mid-size, non-daily newspapers from across the state, also received honors in writing, design, photo, advertising and video categories. The awards were announced at the VPA annual conference in Lynchburg on Saturday night.
All the entries were from the 2025 calendar year. Editor Eleanor Shaw led the newsroom team and Advertising Executive Director Kat Mauser led the advertising team during the contest period.
Of the awards, 11 were first place, 10 were second and two were third.
Here is a breakdown of the winning individual entries:
First Place
• Digital Advertising, Stephen Lunde, Piper Hepler and Valentina D'Angelo, for “Bojangle’s On the Quad”
• Education, Churches and Organizations Ads, Jacob Perez, for a JMU Stormwater Management ad
• Entertainment Advertising, Heidi Ellison for a Bingo Night ad
• Member Self-Promotion, Staff for The Breeze’s annual Media Kit
• Professional Services (excluding medical/healthcare), Ella Austin for a MicroFridge ad
• Social Media, Ella Warren, for “A Breakdown of JMU's Sun Belt Opponents”
• Video Story, Alexa Bonilla, for “More Than a Match”
• Combination Picture and Story, Landon Shackelford for “I Just Want a Home”
• General Make-Up, Staff, for general newspaper design
• Sports News Photo, Annabel Dewey, for a football tackle photo
• Feature Story Writing (excluding Obituaries), Landon Shackelford, for “I Just Want a Home”
Second Place
• Digital Advertising, Stephen Lunde, Piper Hepler and Valentina D'Angelo for an Indian-American Café video ad
• Entertainment Advertising, Heidi Ellison, for a Hometown Music ad
• Real Estate Advertising, Jacob Perez, for a Matchbox Realty ad
• Slick Publications, Staff, Madison 101
• Video Story, Alexa Bonilla, for a story about El Paisano
• Illustrations, Julia Tanner, for an illustration about gun violence
• Special Sections or Special Editions, for a preview of Family Weekend
• Feature Photo, Landon Shackelford, for a Wallows Concert photo
• Sports Feature Photo, Annabel Dewey, for a photo that captured a JMU player hugging his family
• Feature Profile Writing (including News Obituaries), Maya Kollme, for “How One Woman’s Trash is Another Woman's Artwork”
Third Place
• Entertainment Advertising, Heidi Ellison for an In Bloom Concert ad
• Feature Profile Writing (including News Obituaries), Sixuan Wu, for “Friends, faculty and alums remember ‘servant leader’ George Johnson”
