Pegasus News content partner UM Reporter named nation’s best religious newspaper

by Robin Russell of The United Methodist Reporter

The United Methodist Reporter has again been named the best national newspaper by the Religion Communicators Council, an interfaith organization of more than 600 religion communicators across the country.

Our news staff earned a total of six awards in the organization’s 2009 DeRose-Hinkhouse competition, which honors excellence in religion communications. Awards will be presented March 27 during the RCC annual convention in Boston.

Besides being named best national newspaper, we also won an Award of Excellence for a newspaper single issue of Oct. 17, 2008, featuring a cover story on how the United Methodist Church trains its new bishops.

Here's the stories that earned Awards of Excellence:

A protest at the 2008 General Conference over the church’s stance on homosexuality.

A feature series on the orientation for newly elected bishops and here.

A feature story on, "Does Satan really exist?”

We also earned a certificate of merit for live blog reporting of the election of bishops during the South Central Jurisdictional meetings.