The Boothbay Register and Wiscasset Newspaper received 14 awards at the 2015 Maine Press Association's Better Newspaper Contest at the MPA's fall conference held at the Hilton Garden Inn in Bangor on Oct. 17.

The staff's annual magazine-style supplement, Summertime 2015, took first place in the Supplement/Special Section category for Weekly 1 (newspapers with a circulation under 4,000). The supplement was created under the direction of staff members Kevin Burnham, Nicole Lyons, Kathy Frizzell, Sarah Morley and Mike Scarborough. The anonymous judge of the category wrote: “Clean, consistent font use. Nice use of photos. Helpful, quick-hit pull-out with stories.”

Reporter Ben Bulkeley won first place for his arts/lifestyle feature, “Friends and monsters,” the story of a Lincoln Academy student group that plays the game Dungeons and Dragons. The anonymous judge of the category wrote: “Great lede. Writer gives a comprehensive look into the world of Dungeons and Dragons. He clearly spent a lot of time with his subjects.”

The Boothbay Register won two special awards, second place in Digital General Excellence and third place in Advertising General Excellence.

Reporters won several second place awards, including: Lisa Kristoff for her people photo at the Great American Paint Out, and her feature story on The Boothbay Pickers, local musicians Noel Arrington and Gabe Tonon; Susan Johns, for her people photo of a Memorial Day scene featuring a Legionnaire holding the hand of the widow of a World War II veteran, and for her sports video on the beach volleyball court in Wiscasset; Bill Pearson, for his spot news story on the fire at the Hedgcock home in East Boothbay.

Lisa Kristoff earned a third place critic's award for her review of Heartwood's "Arsenic & Old Lace"; she also earned a third place health story award for “Spyware: What you don't know”; Katrina Clark earned a third place for her education story on Boothbay Region High School counselor Kerrin Erhard, and a news video; and Susan Johns for a feature photo.