NPA names former Eagle editor Neb. top young journalist
A former editor of The Eagle was one of two journalists who earned the Outstanding Young Nebraska Journalist Award, daily newspaper division, at the 144th Nebraska Press Association (NPA) Convention, Friday and Saturday in Lincoln.
Harrison native and past Eagle editor Spike Jordan, editor of the Hemingford Ledger, tied with Derek Noehren, sports editor of The North Platte Telegraph, for NPA’s top young journalist award.
Nebraska is home to 17 dailies. The two were selected from a field of 12 young journalists nominated by their respective newspapers, NPA Executive Director Allen Beermann said.
Jordan earned the award for a body of work he produced in 2017 when he served as a copy-editor, reporter and agriculture editor at The Star-Herald, Scottsbluff. On April 1 he was promoted to editor of the Hemingford Ledger, which, like the Star-Herald and The North Platte Telegraph, is owned by billionaire Warren Buffet’s BH Media Group, Omaha.
“I owe a debt of gratitude to everyone at the Star-Herald, from the newsroom and the press-room to the advertising and circulation departments,” Jordan said. “Their hard work freed me up to do what I love most: telling stories that kept the public informed.”
The NPA’s Outstanding Young Nebraska Journalist Award carries a $1,000 stipend and is underwritten by Zean and Marilyn Carney, former publishers of several Nebraska newspapers. Their son, Jeff Carney, of BH Media, presented the award to Jordan and Noehren at NPA’s Friday luncheon, Beermann said.
The award recognizes Nebraska’s top weekly young journalist and top daily young journalist. Nominees for the award had to be a reporter, editor, photographer, graphic designer, production or advertising professional; under 30 as of Dec. 31; and someone who has worked professionally for at least one year at a legal Nebraska newspaper. A legal newspaper is defined asone with the necessary publishing frequency to carry legal notices.
In addition to NPA’s young journalist award, Jordan also captured first in the Specialty/Lifestyle Sections category, daily division, in the association’s annual Better Newspaper Contest, for his work on the Star-Herald’s Sunday Farm & Ranch edition.
His agriculture coverage across the Panhandle also contributed to the Star-Herald winning the 2018 Omaha World-Herald Service to Agriculture Award.
For Jordan, a veteran of the War in Afghanistan who turned 30 on April 3, winning journalism awards is nothing new.
As a CSC student, he won numerous awards for his reporting, column writing and photojournalism during his three-and-a-half years with The Eagle. Throughout his tenure, he served as a reporter and columnist, spring and fall, 2012; opinion editor, spring 2013; managing editor, fall 2013; news editor, spring 2014; and opinion editor again, fall 2014 through spring 2015.
After leaving CSC in 2015, he worked as a reporter and photographer for The Douglas (Wyoming) Budget, October 2015 to May 2016, where he covered courts and government.
In January 2017, he won the Wyoming Press Association’s top award in the General News Story category, and shared second place in the Business and Energy Reporting category with former Budget reporters Nick Balatsos and Jen Kocher for their coverage of the state’s declining coal industry.
In May 2016 he joined the newspaper staff at the Star-Herald, first as a copy editor and paginator. In February 2017 he moved into a reporting post, and five months later, on July 1, he was promoted to agriculture editor after longtime Ag Editor Sandra Hansen retired.
*This story was corrected at 1:03 p.m. on May 3, to show that Mr. Jordan is a veteran of the War in Afghanistan, not the Iraq War