FLDS series wins national award

Custer County Chronicle general manager Jason Ferguson was recently awarded third place in the National Newspaper Association Foundation Editorial Better Newspaper Contest for his writing on Custer County Sheriff Marty Mechaley and his wife, Jen, helping several daughters and a niece of Warren Jeffs escape the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Ferguson placed third nationwide in the Story-Series - Best Feature Series Category for daily and non-daily newspapers with circulations less than 6,000. The series chronicled the girls’ journey out of the FLDS, assisted by the Mechaleys, and the twists and turns the journey took.
The series also placed first in its circulation category in the South Dakota Newspaper Association’s Better Newspaper Contest for Feature Series in May.