Local Journalists Taylor and Helfrick win Pennsylvania News Association 2026 Keystone Media Awards
By The Daily Boro Staff
Local journalists Zack Taylor and Robb Helfrick won second-place awards in the Pennsylvania News Association 2026 Keystone Media Awards for news reporting.
Taylor earned recognition for his coverage of the Penn State Mont Alto campus closing in the “Ongoing News Coverage” category. Helfrick won writing honors for his four-part series “Compassion and Care” in the “Enterprise Reporting” category. The winning articles by Taylor and Helfrick were published by Local News 1.
PNA’s Keystone Media Awards reinforce excellence by individuals in the news media profession, recognizing journalism that consistently provides relevance, integrity, and initiative in serving readers and audiences, and faithfully fulfills its First Amendment rights/responsibilities. The Keystone Media Awards also motivate journalists to improve their craft, thereby benefiting their communities. PNA is the official trade organization for print and digital news outlets in Pennsylvania.
The 2026 Keystone award recognition for Helfrick and Taylor came in the Division 1 category for Multi-Day Publications over 25,000 circulation. Within that division, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the Patriot-News of Harrisburg were the standout news organizations in individual reporting categories.
Philadelphia Inquirer reporters won first place in Investigative Reporting and News Features, with 2nd and Honorable Mentions in Editorial, News Beat, and Breaking News. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette earned top honors in the Business/Consumer News category, with other honors in Breaking News, Ongoing News Feature, and News Feature Stories. Harrisburg’s Patriot-News won first place in Editorial and the Column categories. Other news organizations that won multiple awards were TribLive Pittsburgh and Spotlight PA.
While most of PNA’s awards honored reporters covering news in urban areas, Taylor and Helfrick demonstrated that local news remains a significant and needed resource within rural and smaller communities.
Zack Taylor’s articles detailing Penn State’s Mont Alto campus closing highlighted the repercussions of PSU’s heartbreaking decision to shutter a cherished learning institution- a historic campus with roots planted by Pennsylvania’s first forestry school. Despite community and local government efforts to persuade PSU to keep the school open, the campus will close in 2027.
Robb Helfrick’s series about Compassion and Care detailed how organizations and businesses in Waynesboro and Franklin County help the dying and their families cope with death and grief. Hospice care, funeral services, green burial options, and healing support for people who lose loved ones are elements of a journey that everyone will ultimately face.
Taylor continues to write for Local News 1, while Helfrick now covers Waynesboro news and culture for The Daily Boro. Taylor and Helfrick’s award-winning PNA articles are archived on the localnews1.org website. Click the link below to view the full listing of Division 1 winners in PNA’s 2026 Keystone News Awards.