Social Media Excellence Awards Nominees

TVNewsCheck today announced the 30 nominees for its second annual Social Media Excellence Awards, which honor broadcasters’ exceptional innovation, creativity and audience engagement on Facebook.

Nominees fall under four categories: Talent Page Award, Large Market Page Award, Small-Medium Market Page Award and the Innovator Award, which draws from the entire pool of nominees and distinguishes the most remarkable achievement on the platform by an individual, news brand or station group.

This year’s nominees were determined by the award’s data partner, Social News Desk, which maintains a live database of 12,000 local news Facebook pages. Social News Desk calculated 16 million posts by those pages and identified those with the highest average engagement per post as nominees in the awards’ four categories.

Winners, selected by a panel of judges, will be announced in late November, and the Social Media Excellence Awards will be presented on Dec. 16 at TVNewsCheck’s seventh annual NewsTECHForum. After accepting their awards, the winners will participate in a panel discussion moderated by Kim Wilson, president and founder of Social News Desk.

Large Market Page Award Nominees

• WTVT Tampa Bay — Fox
• KABC Los Angeles — ABC
• KDFW Dallas-Fort Worth — Fox
• WFLD Chicago — Fox
• WYNW New York — Fox

Small and Medium Market Page Nominees

• KGMB-KHNL Honolulu — Gray
• WLTX Columbia, S.C. — Tegna
• KAKE Wichita, Kan. — Lockwood
• WBIR Knoxville, Tenn. — Tegna
• KKTV Colorado Springs — Gray
• KRCR Chico, Calif. — Sinclair
• KTUU Anchorage, Alaska — Gray
• WMAZ Macon, Ga. — Tegna
• KTVB Boise, Idaho — Tegna
• KEPR Yakima, Wash. — Sinclair

Talent Page Award Nominees

• Frank Somerville — KTVU San Francisco
• Matt Devitt — WINK Fort Myers, Fla.
• Jay Towers — WJBK Detroit
• Rich DeMuro — KTLA Los Angeles
• Tracy McCool — WJW Detroit
• Melissa Faith Payne — WLBT Jackson, Miss.
• Katie Nordeen — WGHP Greensboro, N.C.
• Caroline Patrikis — WJLA Washington
• Mike Sands — WLBT Jackson, Miss.
• Keith Carson — WCSH Portland, Maine
• Kelsey Peck — WMBB Panama City, Fla.
• Mike Thompson — WKBT La Crosse, Wis.
• Matt Leach — WPTA Ft. Wayne, Ind.
• Lee Goldberg — WCSH Portland, Maine
• Kent Boughton — KHGI North Platte, Neb.

“Our inaugural Social Media Excellence Awards revealed the extraordinary work being done by stations, station groups and individuals on Facebook, and we expect this second year to showcase remarkable creativity and engagement once more,” said Michael Depp, TVNewsCheck’s special projects editor.

“Local news is producing some of the most compelling, important content you’ll find on social media. And we’re honored to help shine a light on the incredible work of these journalists and newsrooms,” said Social News Desk’s Wilson.

The seventh annual NewsTECHForum, set for Dec. 16-17 at the New York Hilton, will bring together engineering, news, production and digital leaders to discuss excellence in news storytelling and news workflow.

NewsTECHForum is co-located with the SportsVideoGroup Summit, which gathers more than 1,000 sports technologists and production managers to talk about excellence in sports production. The Summit features a technology showcase, open to NewsTECHForum attendees, of more than 75 companies.

To register for NewsTECHForum, click here.

This story has been updated. It originally included KPTV Portland, Ore., as a nominee in the small and medium market category but it was incorectly classified. KEPR Yakima, Wash., replaces it in that category.