• Courtesy Of NENPA
• News editor Matthew Roy

You give us story ideas, letters to the editor, notes of encouragement, checks, Daysies nominations and, most importantly, your attention.

In exchange, week after week, we give you a local newspaper that doesn't let the size of our "market" limit our ambition to cover it.

Over the weekend, Seven Days took home 20 first-place awards — more than any other media outlet — in the annual Better Newspaper Competition organized by the New England Newspaper & Press Association. Judged on submissions published between August 1, 2021, and July 31, 2022, the paper won in a wide range of categories, from education and environmental reporting to election and food coverage.

I love the fact that two stories in last year's "Locked Out" series, a 12-part exploration of Vermont's housing crisis, tied for best general news story. News editor Matthew Roy spent a month researching and writing the kickoff piece: "House Impossible: How the Real Estate Rush and Other Factors Have Pushed Homeownership Out of Reach for Many Vermonters."

By diving into the complexities of the subject himself, he was better able to see the stories to follow and guide his reporters through each of them — no easy task with a topic as fast-moving as housing. That he shares the honor with Derek Brouwer, who wrote the seventh story in the series, is a testament to Matthew's leadership. Derek dug deep to find sources for "Renters' Prison: How a Merciless Market of Unchecked Rent Hikes Traps Vermont Tenants."

Thanks to you, he found them.

Similarly, without personal anecdotes from patients waiting for care at the University of Vermont Medical Center, Chelsea Edgar and Colin Flanders wouldn't have been able to write "The Doctor Won't See You Now," which took first place for health reporting.

Our team of features, food, arts and entertainment writers is still adjusting to work without Seven Days cofounder Pamela Polston, who ran the culture section of the paper until she retired and narrowed her focus to visual arts in summer 2021. Carolyn Fox and Dan Bolles now share Pamela's job of assigning stories, with assistance from Melissa Pasanen, who curates and writes a large portion of the food section each week.

The culture writers are nimble, creative and versatile. Melissa won a first-place award for a feature story about a chef turned fly fisherwoman. Our music editor, the prolific Chris Farnsworth, took home awards for a cover story on Earth Prime Comics and a piece on a senior Olympian. Ken Picard, now in his 21st year at Seven Days, wrote the winning personality profile of ski legend John Egan.

Along with designer Kirsten Thompson, Carolyn gets credit for Staytripper, created during the pandemic to encourage Vermonters to explore their own state; it won top honors in special publication design and presentation. Carolyn started out at Seven Days as a calendar writer in 2009. The woman who currently holds that job, Emily Hamilton, writes the now-award-winning "Magnificent 7" section of the paper.

I could go on ... about Eva Sollberger, who won three first-place awards for her video series, "Stuck in Vermont." Even I got a little something for my From the Publisher pieces: a blue ribbon in the newish but necessary category of "combatting misinformation and restoring trust."

Nationally, Americans' confidence in media outlets is as low as it's ever been, according to Gallup. At Seven Days, we're not feeling that. We can't cover everything, but when we do pursue a story, the goal is to be fair and, when appropriate, lively in reporting on the community we share. We're proud that readers of all stripes regularly engage with us. We couldn't do it without you.