Maine Guild Member Wins Emmy

Amelia Kunhardt, a video editor at the Portland Press Herald and a member of the News Guild of Maine, TNG-CWA Local 31128, has won a coveted regional Emmy award.

Kunhardt won a Boston/New England regional Emmy award on Saturday night for "Three Shots on Roy Road," a 13 1/2-minute video about a young man shot by a state trooper.

"The other finalists were TV stations," Kunhardt says, referring to the "Societal Concerns" category she'd entered. "I thought we had a really powerful story, but technically we're not like television. We do things differently. When they called our name, I was pleasantly shocked."

Kunhardt previously won an Emmy at the Guild-represented Quincy Patriot Ledger for a 2012 health story about a man who lost 100 pounds, and knows of a few others awarded to newspapers. She expects those numbers to grow.

"The lines are all being blurred now," she said. "More and more newspapers are entering these contests."

Kunhardt is self-taught in video editing and produces her videos with Final Cut Pro X, the same program taught in the hugely successful CWA/NETT Academy course.

"We're thrilled to have Amelia, a talented photographer and video editor, on our staff and in our union," said Local Guild President Tom Bell, who has also taken CWA/NETT Academy's Final Cut Pro course. "Not only is she doing great work, but she is a mentor to the entire photo department. By example and also by providing guidance, she has elevated the quality of our staff's multimedia productions."

Kunhardt's video accompanied a print story by reporter and Guild member Matt Bryne. Click here to watch "Three Shots on Roy Road."