ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond Observer has earned another eight awards from the N.C. Press Association.
Competing in the online division — which includes similar community-based publications, as well as statewide public policy journals — the RO is being honored with one first-place, four second-place and three third-place awards in the 2026 Editorial and Photojournalism Contest.
This year’s entries were judged by the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. All entries had to be published between April 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026.
The RO team again swept the sports news reporting category for the third year. The previous two times were consecutively in 2022 and 2023.
Outgoing Sports Editor Kyle Pillar placed third for a story on the renovation of the baseball field at Richmond Senior High School.
This brings Pillar’s total to 24 awards in six cycles.
For the past nine years, Pillar has juggled teaching for Richmond County Schools and providing extensive coverage of local high school sports for the RO.
Managing Editor William R. Toler won first place in the category for his previews leading up to NASCAR’s second consecutive year returning to Rockingham Speedway.
Toler also placed second (with the entry byline as “Staff”) for stories about the track being listed for sale shortly after the 2025 NASCAR race and its subsequent purchase at the end of the year by the International Hot Rod Association.
Although he often jokes that he’s “not a sports guy…or a car guy,” this makes the fifth consecutive year Toler has been honored for his motorsports coverage of Rockingham Speedway and Rockingham Dragway.
Outside of sports, Toler also placed second in Arts and Entertainment Reporting for a feature on Hamlet’s Robert Wilkerson winning a national karaoke competition, and in Photo Page or Essay for covering a disaster drill for nursing and EMS students at Richmond Community College.
Toler’s creativity in hooking readers into the story also landed a third place win for Best Ledes. The trio of ledes for the entry included a story on: a loose pig in East Rockingham; a woman in Hoffman who received a new home after being rescued from a house fire by a state legislator; and the county’s reeling in of an Amazon Web Services data center complex, which had gone by the code name “Blue Marlin.”
A series of stories on the reopening of Rockingham’s skating rink under the ownership of Mary Kate Lambeth, written by contributor Betty Gallo McIntyre and Toler, also earned second place in Business Writing.
Douglas Smith can also add “award-winning columnist” to his tag line, earning a third-place win in Lighter Columns. The entry including the following pieces:
These are the first awards for both McIntyre and Smith. Toler has been honored with 45 awards for writing and photography from the N.C. Press Association, Associated Press and N.C. BAR Association since moving to Richmond County in 2014.
The RO has won 60 awards since joining the NCPA in 2019.
“As always, I’m proud of the RO team,” said Charlie Melvin, who serves as both co-owner and co-publisher with his father, Kenny Melvin. The elder Melvin co-founded the RO in 2017 with Lance Jenkins.
“We are competing with an increasingly capable and competitive group of publications,” Melvin added. “So these awards really are a testament to the team’s continued dedication to news reporting in Richmond County.”
The NCPA — established in 1873 — boasts more than 150 member publications, both print and online.
Winners of the contest were notified via email this week. All awards, including General Excellence, will be announced at the annual convention Sept. 10 in Cary.
