Smoke Signals receives Target Audience award from ONPA

The Grand Ronde Tribe’s bimonthly newspaper, Smoke Signals, won a second-place award in the Target Audience category in the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association’s 2015 Associate Member publications contest.

The Target Audience category required submissions of editions from March, August and November 2014, and judging was based on level of interest, relevance, creativity and commitment to the target audience.

The Salem-based agriculture newspaper The Capital Press won first place and The Portland Tribune took third.

“Only four newspapers in Oregon won the 15 awards handed out in the Associate Member contest,” said Publications Coordinator Dean Rhodes. “For Smoke Signals to rank up there with the likes of The Capital Press, Portland Tribune and Hillsboro Tribune is a great compliment to the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, as well as the staff of the Publications Department. Smoke Signals, again, was the only Native publication to be honored by ONPA.”

The ONPA award follows seven awards received by Smoke Signals from the Native American Journalists Association on July 11, including the prestigious General Excellence Award for Native publications with a circulation between 4,000 and 8,000.

The ONPA awards were announced on Thursday, July 16, during the association’s annual convention held at Salishan Spa & Golf Resort in Gleneden Beach.

Entries were judged by the Virginia Press Association.