Butler Eagle earns 11 Golden Quill nominations
The Press Club of Western Pennsylvania honored the Butler Eagle for its efforts in quality community journalism with 11 nominations for the 62nd annual Golden Quill Awards.
Each year, the Golden Quill Awards honor journalists and news outlets across Western Pennsylvania (as well as parts of Ohio and West Virginia) for their outstanding print, audio, photographic and video journalism.
“I’m proud of our team for the nominations they have earned across departments,” publisher Tammy Schuey said. “It’s not just news — it’s also podcasts, sports and photography, which shows the excellence that community journalism can achieve.”
Four Butler Eagle stories were nominated for awards in “Excellence in Written Journalism, Division 2,” each in a different category.
In Spot/Breaking News, Zach Zimmerman and Sol McCormick were recognized for a February 2025 article titled “Fogel Free,” on the release of Butler native Marc Fogel after three and a half years in Russian prison.
In the News Feature category, Matthew Glover received honors for “A chink in the armor: Cranberry Township officer grapples with mental health.” The two-part feature from May and June 2025 focused on Cranberry Township police officer Josh Shimko and his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder after responding to a suicide.
In the Medical/Health category, William Pitts was nominated for “5 years later: Cost of COVID,” a retrospective on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Butler County, published near the five-year anniversary of the day that the World Health Organization officially declared it a pandemic.
In the Education category, Zimmerman received a second nomination, this one for “Missing Money: How the state budget impasse is costing Butler County schools millions,” a look at the financial impact of the late 2025 Pennsylvania budget impasse on Butler County’s school districts.
The Butler Eagle’s podcast department, led by Laura Crago, received three Golden Quill nominations for Excellence in Audio Journalism.
Two episodes of the “Alter Eagle” podcast received nominations. An interview with Fiore Moletz, founder of Burghers Brewing in Zelienople, was nominated in the Lifestyle category. “Holding on to Hello,” a profile on Hank and Terry Leyland and their eventful relationship, was nominated in the Profile category.
The Eagle’s sports podcast, “Eye on Sports,” received a nomination for an episode previewing the 2025 season for the Karns City Gremlins football team.
Rob McGraw, the Butler Eagle’s lead photographer, received three nominations for “Excellence in Visual Achievement” — in the Spot News Photo, Feature Photo and Photo Essay categories. The “Photo Essay” submission was a series of photos documenting the 2025 PIAA wrestling championships.
The eleventh and final nomination went to Thomas Leturgey, a Butler Eagle freelance writer, for his series of America250 historical features that have published in the monthly America250 sections.
The Golden Quill winners will be announced at the annual awards dinner on Monday night, May 18, at Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh.
