A pair or Marysville Journal-Tribune staff members are finalists for awards in the 2020 Ohio Associated Press Newspaper Contest.
Reporter Mac Cordell is up for a pair of awards while managing editor Chad Williamson is a finalist in another category. The Journal-Tribune competes against newspapers of a similar size from across the state in Division I of the contest.
Cordell is a finalist for Best News Writer, based on an entry comprised of various articles written throughout the year.
He is also a finalist in the Best Public Service category for his series of stories detailing the attempts to bring home the remains of a pair of hometown heroes from WWII. An amateur adventurer convinced local residents and others that he could bring home the remains Marysville natives John “Blackie” Porter and Harold Neibler, a pair of airmen shot down in the Himalayas, claiming to have found their crash site during a previous expedition.
After a community fundraising drive provided the individual with thousands of dollars, he left for India minus a pair of Ohio State researchers, and later returned with six, one-gallon plastic bags that he claimed contained remains of the airmen. He also failed to follow proper protocols in removing the suspected remains from India.
The adventurer was met at the Los Angeles International Airport by federal agents where he was detained and the bags confiscated. Examination of the contents of the bags found they contained no human remains and Cordell’s stories raised the question of whether the community had been the victim of a scam.
“Mac’s series about Blackie Porter was also among his entries in the Best News Writer category, so in actuality his fact gathering and reporting on that series was strong enough to propel him to the top in two categories,” Williamson said. “A couple of people close to the recovery effort tried to discredit the articles, but I think the events that unfolded, and now these awards, show the reporting was stronger than the rhetoric.”
This is the second consecutive year Cordell has been nominated in the Best Public Service category. Last year, the paper took home top honors in the category for its continued coverage of the suicide crisis in the community.
Williamson is a finalist in the full page design category for his layout of an April package titled “Dream of Fields” about the struggles of a local athlete during his senior football and baseball seasons.