The Citizen received a nice dose of good news last week from the New York Associated Press.

The association’s annual writing, photography and graphics contest results came out, and several staff members of this newspaper received honors for their work between June 1, 2008 and May 31, 2009.

As the editor of the paper, the achievements confirmed what I already knew — that we are blessed with an outstanding team of journalists in this newsroom.

We’ve generally done well in this annual competition, and this year was no exception.

And that type of consistency is a reflection not only of the individuals whose names are on the awards, but also of the entire staff. Behind each award was a group of people who contributed to the effort.

I consider myself very lucky to be able to work with these fine professionals.

So here’s the rundown of this year’s awards:

• Sports editor Ryan Day took honorable mention in the sports column category for his opinion pieces on the Syracuse University basketball team.

• Staff writer Nate Robson won second place in business/finance writing for his package on the five-year anniversary of the Bass Pro Shops opening.

• Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin placed second in beat reporting for her coverage of local education.

• Staff writer Christopher Caskey earned a second place honor in the continuing coverage category for his articles on the city of Auburn Department of Public Works theft/amnesty story.

• Managing editor Mike Dowd finished second in the editorials category for a collection of the Our View columns her penned.

All of the above honors came in a class of daily newspapers with circulations below 25,000.

The following awards came in a class involving papers with circulations below 50,000:

• The Skaneateles Journal, led by editor Jessica Soule and editorial assistant John Turner, finished first in a new category honoring the overall quality general interest weekly publications operated under the umbrella of a daily newspaper.

• Day took first place in the competition for news presentation, non-spot for the Doubledays 2008 preview section.

• Staff photographer Sam Tenney was first in the portraits and personalities competition for his photo of a local baseball pitcher.

Executive editor Jeremy Boyer’s columns appear Tuesdays in The Citizen and he can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 231 or jeremy.boyer@lee.net