HIGH COUNTRY NEWS RATES AMONG THE BEST

IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 3, 2007

Feisty non-profit news magazine wins Independent Press Award


High Country News, the 38-year-old news magazine known for it’s fervent and in-depth coverage of the American West, is among the best in the independent news business, says the editors of Utne magazine. In the 18th Annual Utne Independent Press Awards, editors called High Country News “a go-to source for coverage of the West’s public lands” and awarded the news magazine the top honor in the Local/Regional Coverage category.

Utne editors — exclusively responsible for choosing winners — praised HCN for “presenting the voices and viewpoints missing from the mainstream,” and “doing it well.” They also noted that policymakers and big city reporters often rely on HCN for tips and leads on the important issues facing the West.

“I think the Utne award and all the other significant journalism honors our writers and editors racked up last year just highlight something our readers already knew,” High Country News editor John Mecklin says. “Judging from many perspectives, many organizations have found High Country News to consistently produce in-depth journalism that compares favorably to what’s published by the country’s best major magazines and newspapers.

“But you know, we’ve provided that level of quality for quite some time now.”

High Country News won several other prestigious awards in 2006 including the Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism and Science Journalism Award (small newspaper category) from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

The list of all 15 winners of the 18th Annual Independent Press Awards can be found in the January/February 2007 issue of Utne.

More about High Country News
High Country News is a bi-weekly news magazine that reports on the West's natural resources, public lands, and changing communities. Covering 11 western states, from the Great Plains to the Northwest, and from the Northern Rockies to the desert Southwest, High Country News is a respected source for environmental news, analysis and commentary on water, logging, wildlife, grazing, wilderness, growth and other issues changing the face of the West.

The 38-year-old news magazine has been interpreting the West since its founding in Wyoming by rancher and environmentalist Tom Bell. Now published from Paonia, Colorado, High Country News is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation.

Thirteen years of HCN’s journalism can by found on its Web site, www.hcn.org.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT JOANN KALENAK AT 
970-527-4898 x19 OR E-MAIL joann@hcn.org.