Creative Circle clients win top awards

We actually redesign the Times Herald-Record three times. The first was in 2001. Then again during newsprint putdowns in 2010 and 2012.”

Bill Ostendorf, president and founder of Creative Circle

The Pocono Record in Stroudsburg, Pa., won a Sweepstakes Award from the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association by winning the most awards in its circulation class.

The newsroom staff claimed 13 Keystone Awards in the Division IV competition, including eight first places. In addition, the Record took second-place honors from the Keystone Chapter of SPJ as well as four awards in the 2014 Pennsylvania APME News Excellence Competition.

Meanwhile, Pocono's sister paper, the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, N.Y., was awarded the Newspaper of Distinction award May 31 by the New York State Associated Press at its annual awards banquet.

Times Herald-Record staff members won 11 awards, including four first-place honors in the major writing categories.

The Newspaper of Distinction honor is given to one newspaper in each of four circulation classes for outstanding overall coverage. The Times Herald-Record was included in the 45,000-125,000 circulation class.

Creative Circle redesigned both papers, helped management create a more efficient centralized desk to produce both papers and led extensive training on improving planning, better photojournalism, improving headlines and alternative story forms.

"These are both papers that are very much in touch with their markets and we provided them with dynamic, flexible templates to better showcase their great local content," said Bill Ostendorf, president and founder of Creative Circle. "