WILMINGTON – Delaware Business Times won a dozen awards in the 2022 Delaware Press Association contest, including five first place awards that will be entered into a national competition. DBT was named the best printed newspaper in Delaware among entrants and will compete against other honorees nationwide in the National Federation of Press Women contest, where winners will be announced in June. Both editor Jacob Owens and reporter Katie Tabeling also earned first-place awards for coverage across a spectrum of categories in the contest that honors print journalism, television, radio, public relations, novel writing, and more. "Our editorial and design teams have worked tirelessly over the past year raising the bar on the quality and quantity of our writing, reporting and layout. Readers have noticed and so too have our peers," said Michael Reath, publisher of Delaware Business Times. "We greatly appreciate the recognition for our coverage of Delaware’s business community, and I congratulate our entire team for their outstanding work. I couldn’t be more proud of their efforts." [caption id="attachment_218124" align="alignleft" width="150"] Katie Tabeling
Reporter[/caption] Tabeling won first place for a business story for her July cover story “The Big Leagues,” which explored the expansion of DE Turf in Frederica. She bested an entry from Owens titled “Dream Come True,” which told the story of entrepreneur Earl Cooper and his startup Eastside Golf, which earned second place. Tabeling also won a first-place award for a story on social issues for her May cover story, “Corporate Delaware addresses its diversity gap,” that looked at leadership at some of Delaware’s largest companies and what they were doing to advance diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. [caption id="attachment_203722" align="alignright" width="150"] Jacob Owens
Editor[/caption] Owens won a first-place award for a feature story in a print-based newspaper for his May cover story “A Dream Realized,” which looked at the 25-year history of the Riverfront in Wilmington. Both Owens and Tabeling were honored for their feature obituary writing, with Owens’ story on the passing of former Gov. Pete du Pont winning first place and Tabeling’s story on investment titan and political donor Foster Friess finishing second. Tabeling won a pair of second place finishes in Agriculture, Agribusiness or Aquaculture writing and Science or Technology writing for her stories “Growing More With Less,” which looked at technology advancements in agriculture, and “Video calls may be future in banking, big or small,” which examined the growth of telebanking in the pandemic. She also earned an honorable mention in the Agriculture, Agribusiness or Aquaculture writing category for her story “A Brewing Industry,” which explored the growing Laurel malt business Proximity Malt. Finally, Owens received a second-place award in editorial writing for his editorial “Delaware can, and should, lead in green tech industry,” which argued for greater emphasis on investments in next-generation technology, and a third-place award in government or politics reporting for his story “A decade later, the ACA awaits Biden’s return,” which looked at the health insurance market as President Biden was set to take office. The 12 DPA awards improve upon DBT’s haul from the association last year, when it won nine awards. It later won two NFPW awards and earned two honorable mentions in the national awards program.