Staffer wins design award

Luke Vickrey, photographer and page designer for the Havre Daily News, has been recognized for his work.

Vickrey was recently honored with second place for page design by the Society of Professional Journalists in its 2002 Pacific Northwest Excellence in Journalism competition. The contest included newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington with a circulation of 25,000 or less. The circulation of the Havre Daily News is about 4,200.

The award acknowledged Vickrey's design of three weekly Hi-Living pages: a feature about drilling for water along the Hi-Line, another about scrapbooking, and a third on a Havre senior citizen who's made Christmas ornaments for the last 73 years.

"I think it's pretty significant that a paper our size won in a category under 25,000 in an area so large," said the 27-year-old Huntington, Ind., native who moved to Havre in November. "You don't have to be the biggest newspaper around to have quality design."

Vickrey was also acknowledged in recent months by the National Press Photographers Association, picking up a second-place award in a monthly spot news photography contest.