Mineral Independent wins big at state awards banquet

The Mineral Independent recently brought home nine awards from the Montana Newspaper Association banquet; six of those a first place honor.

Reporter Keith Cousins was thrilled at his success, bringing his awards home to share with the Mineral County community.

“It felt really great to be acknowledged by the Montana Newspaper Association for my efforts with the Mineral Independent over the course of the year,” said Cousins.

Cousins has been with the Mineral Independent since January 2012.

“Before this job I had no experience with photojournalism which makes it especially sweet to win four awards for my photographs,” said Cousins.

After somewhat of a rocky start with his photos, Cousins has turned around completely and brought home his success.

As he reflected on his first day in Mineral County, Cousins recalled going to cover two basketball games.

“I shot photos and none of them came out. They were all blurry and none of them were even remotely usable,” said Cousins. But his luck eventually turned around as he honed his skills and improved on them consistently – the awards proof of a comeback story.

Throughout all his success, he remains humble and credits the community for a lot of his success.

Out of the awards the Mineral Independent did win, Cousins’ favorite was for the best sports story.

“It was a real challenge to cover sports, another thing I’ve never done until I moved here. And then to have that story also be about our state champion tennis player Cary Chamberlain makes it even cooler to me,” said Cousins.

“Without her quotes and her feedback on the matches, that story would be no where near as good so it speaks volumes to her passion for the game as well.”

The Mineral Independent brought home first place for the best outdoor activity photo, the best sports photo, the best photo essay, the best sports story, best sports page, and best news photo.

The Mineral Independent also brought home a second place victory for the best sports photo, and two third place wins for the best front page and the best sports story.

“Plaques, on plaques, on plaques is what the Mineral Independent is about,” said Cousins with a laugh.