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Repeat Honor – Today tops CT mags again in SPJ awards

  • Today Online
  • Jun 3
  • 9 min read

Updated: 5 days ago

• 74 Awards in 7 Years for Today Publishing

Originally published: May 19

Special to Today Magazine

• See below for list of awards with links to award-winning content


Today Magazine has received the most SPJ awards among Connecticut magazines in 2025 — duplicating last year's achievement in the state's Society of Professional Journalists contest.

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The Society of Professional Journalists is widely considered the nation's preeminent journalism organization. The Connecticut SPJ Chapter presents awards each year via its Excellence in Journalism Contest — the 2025 competition honors media excellence during the 2024 calendar year.


Today Magazine has won six awards in 2025 — one first-place, one second-place and four third-place awards. Connecticut Magazine finished second among state magazines with four awards: two first-place, one second-place and one third-place. Today Magazine celebrated its fifth anniversary in July 2024, while Connecticut Magazine dates back to 1971.


Contributing writer Noelle Simone Blake won Today's first-place award, and Christopher DeFrancesco won a second-place award. Contributing photographer Wendy Rosenberg won a third-place award, and Today editor-in-chief Bruce Deckert received three third-place awards.


Today Publishing has garnered 74 awards in seven years — the media outlet produces the digital news site Today Online and the monthly Today Magazine.


While Today Magazine turned 5 years old last July, Today Publishing observed its 7th birthday this year. Deckert founded this young media enterprise in January 2018 and launched its first publication in October 2018, debuting Canton Today Magazine as a print-and-digital monthly. In July 2019, a rebrand established Today Magazine.


Meanwhile, the history of Connecticut Magazine goes back nearly nine decades — its predecessor, Connecticut Circle, was founded as a regional magazine in 1938. After a 33-year run, the publication was sold in 1971 and renamed Connecticut Magazine. Compared with this 50-something media behemoth, Today Magazine is a mere kindergarten student, yet somehow Today has been able to surpass Connecticut Magazine in the award race twice — this year and last year.

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Indeed, Today and Connecticut Magazine are far apart in chronological age, yet they reside in the same ballpark vis-à-vis contemporary journalism recognition.


In 2024, for the first time, Today won the most awards among state magazines in the Connecticut SPJ contest. Today Magazine received 28 awards last year — 10 first-place, 13 second-place and five third-place. Other state magazines collectively received 12 awards, with Connecticut Magazine receiving the second-most: five, all first-place awards.


So the math in 2024 was straightforward: Today garnered more than twice as many awards as all other state magazines combined.


Adding the numbers from 2024 and 2025, Today Magazine has won 34 awards in those two Connecticut SPJ contests.


Connecticut Magazine has won nine awards in those two years. Besides Today Magazine, all state magazines combined have won 17 awards collectively in that time frame. In 2025, besides Today Magazine and Connecticut Magazine, only one other state magazine received an award: Seasons Magazine won one first-place.


Therefore, the award math in 2024 and 2025 is likewise straightforward — Today's two-year prize tally has eclipsed other Connecticut magazines by a precise 2-to-1 ratio.

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TODAY AWARD-WINNER BIOS

Circling back to this year's Today Magazine award-winners: For Blake, this is her third SPJ award as a Today contributor. A 2022 graduate of Avon High School, she previously received a first-place and second-place award. Blake wrote her initial first-place story when she was a Today Magazine intern and a sophomore at Avon High.


Now a student at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, she is an editor for The Dartmouth Mirror, a weekly magazine published by The Dartmouth, the college's student newspaper. Founded in 1799, The Dartmouth Inc. is America’s oldest college paper, according to its LinkedIn page. Blake is also one of Dartmouth's James O. Freedman Presidential Scholars.


Is Blake the first person to win an SPJ award as a high school student? The answer is currently unknown — the Connecticut SPJ doesn’t keep track of the ages of award recipients, according to a spokesperson.


By the way, in her two award years, Blake won Today’s only first-place SPJ prize — that's right, in 2021 and this year Deckert received no first-place award, while an Avon High student (and now graduate) attained this accolade.


Further, Blake's first-place honor in 2021 began a run of three straight years when Avon High students won the SPJ's top award: First-place laurels likewise went to Nishant Gopalachar (class of 2022) and Chloe Kieper (class of 2023). Along with Blake, they were also Today interns.

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"I’m glad that student writers and Today Magazine interns who are part of Today's legacy have won these awards,” says Deckert, who served as an English and journalism teacher before moving to the media realm full-time. “Winning an SPJ award is an amazing honor for a professional journalist. For younger writers, it's clearly a tremendous accolade — and an accomplishment they can include on a resumé until the day they retire."


For DeFrancesco, he has won awards with Today in three consecutive years and has received four SPJ awards overall: two first-place and two second-place awards. Since 2007, he has been a communications specialist at Farmington-based UConn Health, and since 2016 has served as vice president for communication for the local chapter of the University Health Professionals union.


DeFrancesco was previously a reporter and anchor with WTIC NewsTalk 1080​ — he is a four-time winner of the Walt Dibble Award for Personal Excellence in Radio​ bestowed by the Connecticut Associated Press Broadcasters Association.


Deckert and DeFrancesco were colleagues at the Imprint weekly newspaper group in 1996 — at that time, Imprint was a subsidiary of the Journal Register Company aka JRC.


For Rosenberg, she has likewise received awards in three consecutive years and has garnered six SPJ honors overall with Today: one first-place, three second-place and two third-place awards. She has been the featured contributing photographer for Today Publishing since January 2019, focusing on wildlife and nature.

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Rosenberg has showcased her photos at numerous exhibits across Connecticut's Farmington Valley. Moreover, she has won first-place awards from the Simsbury Camera Club.


For Deckert, he has won 46 SPJ awards overall in his media career, including 15 first-place prizes — 44 have come with Today Publishing, plus two with the JRC, where he worked as a reporter and editor from 1996 to 1999. He served as an editor in various roles for ESPN. com and ESPN Digital Media from 1999 to 2017.


In the relatively brief seven-year history of Today Publishing, 36 Today contributors have won SPJ awards besides editor-in-chief Deckert — 33 contributing writers and three contributing photographers.


Established in 1909, the Society of Professional Journalists "is the nation's most broad-based journalism organization," per the SPJ website. The Connecticut SPJ chapter launched in 1966.


"I've said this before, and it's worth repeating — awards and acclaim have the potential to cut both ways," notes Deckert, who is also Today's publisher. "An award can be a great encouragement, like getting an A from a teacher or a promotion from an employer, but awards also have the unfortunate potential to breed arrogance and complacency. I hope and pray that Today Magazine's award-winners appreciate the upside and grow in healthy confidence and healthy humility — and avoid the downside like the proverbial plague."

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Today Publishing features community news that matters nationwide and aims to record Connecticut’s underreported upside — covering the heart of the Farmington Valley and beyond. Today defines the Valley towns as follows: Avon, Canton, Farmington, Granby and Simsbury.


Today Magazine started as a print-and-digital publication, but has been digital-exclusive since January 2021 because the COVID shutdown and other factors have impacted the advertising revenue that supported a print product. A print-and-digital special edition — spotlighting local World War 2 heroes — is still in the works but has effectively been on the back burner since 2022, awaiting support from advertisers.


So far in 2025, Today Magazine is on sabbatical — December 2024 is the most recent edition. Today Publishing has focused news coverage this year via the Today Online news platform. Today Online debuted in July 2019 as Today Magazine Online, our dedicated digital news site that reaches the far-flung global Internet realm across the Farmington Valley, throughout Connecticut and around the nation and world.


In 2021, Today Magazine Online rebranded as Today Online.


​"At the end of the day, I believe we all deserve awards when we leverage our God-given gifts for good in our local and global communities," says Deckert. "Yes, everyone on the planet — bar none." +


• See below for a list of Today's awards and links to award-winning content

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Wendy Rosenberg won an award for this exquisite photo of a bald eagle

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SPJ AWARD RIDDLE

If you're wondering why magazines in Connecticut received 40 awards overall in 2024, but only 11 this year, the riddle comprises a two-part answer. The less significant factor is that there are fewer competition categories this year — 30 compared with 34 in the 2024 contest.


More significantly, the media-outlet divisions for this year's Connecticut SPJ contest were restructured and streamlined. In the previous contests that Today Publishing entered — for the awards announced from 2019 to 2024 — all magazines in the Constitution State competed only with other magazines in the Magazine Division, in a five-division contest format. The five divisions in previous years were as follows: Regional A, Regional B, Magazine, Hyperlocal and Broadcast (TV and radio stations).


This year, in the 2025 contest, the Connecticut SPJ moved to a three-division format, thereby increasing the number of media outlets in each division competing for awards. The three divisions this year are as follows: Division A-Large, Division B-Medium and Division C-Small. Today Magazine is one of 22 outlets that entered the contest in Division B-Medium this year — last year, five magazines competed in the Magazine Division.


About 25 magazines are published in Connecticut, according to the W3Newspapers website. Meanwhile, about 20 daily newspapers and about 40 weeklies are published in the Constitution State, per various sources.

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Under the new contest format, the Division A-Large group encompasses media outlets of similar size and scope, regardless of medium — for example, television and radio stations are now grouped with the largest print newspapers and online news organizations in the state. This year 11 outlets entered the contest in this division.


Division A-Large outlets include: Connecticut Public (TV and radio), CT Mirror, Fox 61, Hartford Courant, Hearst Connecticut, NBC Connecticut, News 12 Connecticut, WFSB Connecticut (CBS affiliate) and WTNH News 8 (ABC affiliate).


The Division B-Medium group now encompasses all magazines plus daily newspapers and similar media outlets with fewer resources than those in Division A-Large — these midsize newspapers cover more than five towns and employ 5-10 full-time reporters.


Division B-Medium outlets include: Bristol Press, Connecticut Magazine, CT News Junkie, The Day, Hartford Business Journal, Hearst Connecticut daily newspapers, New Britain Herald, Republican-American and Today Magazine.


The Division C-Small group encompasses any media outlet or news organization that features hyperlocal news, covers no more than five towns and employs fewer than five full-time reporters — 25 outlets entered the contest in this division.


Division C-Small outlets include: Hearst Connecticut weekly newspapers, Nancy On Norwalk (Chapman Hyperlocal Media), NewCanaanite.com, New Haven Independent, Shore Publishing weekly newspapers, Valley Independent Sentinel (Naugatuck Valley) and Westport Journal. +


​• 2025 Award Announcement – celebrating media excellence in 2024

•​ Sources — Society of Professional Journalists: Connecticut​ SPJ Chapter​ — press release • spokesperson email — plus Today Publishing review of SPJ award info and data


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TODAY MAGAZINE • 2025 AWARDS


Society of Professional Journalists

Excellence in Journalism Contest 

Connecticut SPJ Chapter • Division B-Medium


Here’s the rundown of Today Magazine’s six SPJ awards — one first-place, one second-place, four third-place — followed by the category and link:


First Place — General Column/Commentary

School Choice Cuts Both Ways – Noelle Simone Blake


​Second Place — Sports Column/Commentary


Third Place — Feature Photo

Looking Up, Hoping and Soaring – Wendy Rosenberg


Third Place — Arts, Entertainment, Food & Leisure


Third Place — Sports Feature


Third Place — Headlines – Bruce Deckert +


Featuring community news that matters nationwide, Today Online and Today Magazine aim to record Connecticut’s underreported upside — covering the heart of the Farmington Valley and beyond


• Today Magazine and Today Online are produced by Today Publishing

• 5 Farmington Valley Towns • One Aim — Exceptional Local Journalism

• Avon • Canton • Farmington • Granby • Simsbury


Award News


Today didn't publish a news story for the 2019 and 2020 SPJ contests — Today Publishing received one award in 2019 and two in 2020 •

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TODAY Publishing • 860-988-1910 • office @ TodayPublishing.net — P.O. Box 393, West Simsbury, Connecticut 06092 — © 2018-2025

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