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2008 Better Newspaper Contest — Advertising

contestheader

Division 2 Dailies 7,001 to 99,999
Division 3 Dailies 7,000 or Less
Division 4 Semiweeklies 4,001 or More
Division 5 Semiweeklies 4,000 or Less
Division 6 Large Weeklies
Division 7 Medium Large Weeklies
Division 8 Medium Weeklies
Division 9 Small Medium Weeklies
Division 10 Small Weeklies

Advertising

View Winners' Slideshow

Division 2 Large Dailies

1. Victoria Advocate — “Giant lizard” Great idea. I loved it. Perfect!! Nice job. “Exciting” Nice job! But I have seen this before in other papers in the USA. “Spiderman” I think this is the weakest one of the three. It would have been nice to have maybe a spider web background.

2. Odessa American — “ORMC” Very cute. I like how you made the team come first and ad second. The cheerleaders image made me laugh. “Wal-Mart” The print press line up is a little off. But overall nice design. “golf tournament” Nice idea to cut out the face. Lets the reader imagine themselves there.

3. The Paris News — “Kimberley Clark” The originality is excellent. I love the translation part. I would have liked the background to be a little bolder. “Campbells” I liked that you used faces of workers. Nice touch. The fonts could have been a little more exciting. “Turner Industries Group” Great ad. It’s not everyday that a help wanted ad gets color. I love the large photo.

4. The Facts, Clute — “Saluting seniors” Nice work on getting the feeling across about seniors. I also like that you didn’t put the ad into a border. It makes it pop out more. “Damian Paint and Body” Nice balance on the spot color. Many other people use spot too much. I know when to say enough. “Snooty Poodle” Love the pictures! It would have been nice to have a different font. Three other ads on the pages used the same fonts.

Division 3 Small Dailies

1. Plainview Daily Herald — “Rodeo bar-none” Love it! Great border The printing plant press is a little off. Made the (five guy) photo fuzzy. “Cargill Meat” This is the weakest of the three, but still nice. It like the use of the worker photos. “Azteca Milling” Love the hand photo. The logo image is very fuzzy. I also liked that you didn’t put the ad in a box.

2. Terrell Tribune — “House ad” Like the use of the grayed out front page paper. Type is plain. Have some fun with type and placement of type. “Bargain hunter” Look out for using yellow type. Love the photos, the apple looks so good to eat, not quite sure about the knife on counter. “Pool” Liked the play on words with the header and nice border. I would have had a little more fun with the type.

3. Taylor Daily Press — “Johns Community Hospital” Logo is fuzzy. I liked how you showcased the doctors, but I would have used the same border around the photos. “Wrap n ship” Cute idea with the Santa letter. I like how you flipped the letter around to make it look like a child wrote it. Maybe should have spelled a few words wrong too. “Franklin Bank” Funny ad. Love the type choice. It screams old west.

4. Brownwood Bulletin — “Funeral home” Very nice. It really pops with the four-color. Love the font choices. “Harris Broadband” Nice way to spice up a somewhat boring ad with the stop sign. Play with fonts a bit. “Sliger’s Produce” Love the idea. It would have been nice to have an image of a Sliger holding a pecan. Love the header text.

Division 4 Large Semiweeklies

1. Round Rock Leader — “Tilted Kilt” Love the images that you used. I also like how the fonts mesh well together. “RR Express” Nice photo. Like how you used the colors from the uniform for the font/type. “Sky Ridge Plaza” Love the screen back image of candy corn. Also like the font choice.

2. Wise County Messenger — “Radio Shack” Nice way to bring everything that Radio Shack has to offer. I also like how it is an ad, and a graphic for the story. “Best Donuts” I like how you didn’t put the border on the top of the ad. “White space is our friend.” Donut photo looks very good.

3. Hood County News — “Inside & Out” Nice four-color!  I would play around a little more with type and fonts. This is the weakest out of the three ads. “Wagon Yard” Like the font choice, it’s got that old west feel, which helps drive home the company name “Wagon Yard.” I like how the background is not overpowering and it helps showcase the fans. “Blue Rapid Car Wash” Love it! The bubble background is awesome! It’s a throw back to the 50s. nice job on font choices.

4. Williamson County Sun — “Mother’s Day” Nice spot color, but the press printing was a little off. Maybe make the word specials in black to help balance the ad a bit. It is a little top heavy. “Crestview Baptist” Very nice job on this ad, way to break up al the info. A lot of times these kinds of ads with a lot of text copy can be hard to read. Nice job! “Happy birthday” This is the best out of the three ads. It made me stop and read the copy. Nice job on making a sig page look different.

Division 5 Small Semiweeklies

1. The Highlander, Marble Falls — “River City Grill” I love the look of this ad. It reminds me of an old post card. Nice job. “Llano Chamber” Very cute idea. I love when old 50s and 60s images are being used in ads. Well done! “Hills of Shady Grove” Makes me want to buy a house here! Nice bright photos and the blue banner helps your eyes flow!

2. The Jack County Herald — “State jail” Cute photo of a tiger. Liked the font. “First National Bank heart” I love the use of photos and the way you laid them out like a heart. Very eye-catching. “First National Bank good” Nice photo. Love the textured background.

3. Wimberley View — “J&R Gymnastics” Best ad out of the three. Love all the children shots. Many parents probably cut this ad out and put it in a scrapbook. “House ad” Nice filler ad. Might want to make the Web page look a little more real looking. You got to love Photoshop. “HEB” This is the weakest of the three ads. Bursts are very busy. The type and photo are very fuzzy.

4. The Bowie News — “Hip Chic” Like the four-color. Not a great idea to put snow on their heads, it looks like they have a bad case of flakes or head lice. “Decatur Powersports” Nice image. Not bad font choice, logos a little fuzzy. “CA Longhorn Cattle” Picture is very nice and clear. Logos not bad. Type is very fuzzy.

Division 6 Large Weeklies

1. Park Cities People — “Image Eye” Love the ‘going my way cowboy?’ font. Nice photo along with the swirls, nice touch. Makes it not look like the old ad. Also like how you used the blue from the photo into the bottom bar. “Milyn Realty” Awesome photos! Would love to move into any of them. Nice choice of type. “Epiphany” Very nice! Like that is not just black and white. Very soft looking!

2. Rockdale Reporter — “Credit union” Like the mule-hearded bit. Very creative. Photos are very clear and also the logos. “House ad” Very cute ad. Nice way to promote Web site. I might have played around with fonts a little more! Maybe comic book looking fonts! Not comic sans but something a little more fun. “Remax” Love the “River Ridge Ranch” font. The Remax logo is very fuzzy. Printing plant color is a little off. Makes the Suzie Bush photo fuzzy.

3. Mansfield News Mirror — “Ray’s Pharmacy” Very nice ad. Nice way to get all that information into that ad. The type isn’t that small either. Like the use of the photo and the headers. “Twigs” Love that you used the brown from the logo. It helps bring everything together. Like the font choices too. “Cricket Alley” This is the weakest of the three ads. The image in the background isn’t really working. It would have been nice to have the photos bigger and the type smaller.

4. Cherokeean Herald, Rusk — “State championship” Strongest ad out of the three ads. Nice photos and type choices. The printing press is a little off, some color bleeding going on. The border on the right side and the bottom you can really notice it with the photo Leland Acker area. “PAACO” Like the type and tie-in the grad section. What’s going on with the border on the left side. Do you want people to clip it out? If so it should run all around the ad. “Airtek” Nice idea to use a child in the ad. The photo clipping path is very rough. The logo is very fuzzy. It would have been nice to use the blue in the logo for the border of the ad and not cyan. This is the weakest of the three ads.

Division 7 Medium Large Weeklies

1. West Austin News — “Martha Banister” Love the Christmas tree image. Nice font choices. “Million dollar view” Very nice, love the font that you used but I would have placed the ad on the bottom of the page and put the Heritage co. ad on top. It would help with keeping my eyes from leaving the ad. Because the ad is so colorful and the Heritage ad has a lot of white in it. It’s almost like placing text under an ad. It’s not right. The photos in this ad are so awesome! Nice job! “26 Doors” Love the border. The color font gets a little hard to read. I would have used a bolder font.

2. The Community News, Aledo — “House Paris Hilton” Very cool idea series. I might have played around with type more! “House Tivo” Very cool idea series. Like how the type is bigger than the Paris Hilton ad. “Tennis team” I would have cropped the photo to not show the underwear. Fonts aren’t that bad. Tennis ball you can tell that you Photoshopped that. It’s edges should be a lot smoother.

3. The Progress, Three Rivers — “Vote” Nice way to spice up a political ad. The fonts are a little boring. “Merry Christmas” Nice border. Like how you used color in the text too. This is the weakest of the three ads. “Handi Stop” Love it! Love the photos and the type. It’s nice to see someone use Photoshop the right way, “portfolio” work.

4. Goldthwaite Eagle — “Kids day” Like the clown image that you used. Printing plant’s colors are a little off. It makes the photos fuzzy. Also like the bold font that you used. Here’s a tip. It’s First Kid’s Day or just Kid’s Day. You shouldn't use the word annual in the ad. You can use it for second and so on but not the first because they might not have it again. Just makes you sound dumb. “Mills General” Love the camo background. Some photos are very fuzzy. I might have used color in the prices. “MC State Bank” Awesome photo. The type is a little boring.

Division 8 Medium Weeklies

1. The Clifton Record — “Johnny’s Place” Like that you have all the info on the apron and that you didn’t put a border around the apron. “White space is our friend.” “Fall Fest” Nice color choices. The black background really pops the other colors. “Cliftex” Like the use of snowflakes and bubble. It helps break-up the red background and marries the background with the photo. I might have just used the handwritten front through the whole ad and not use the serif font at all. It kind of breaks up the ad a bit.

2. Muleshoe Journal — “Tour de Muleshoe” Very cool. Image is a little fuzzy though. Nice layout of info. There was a lot to put into the ad. “Superwoman” Love it! Love it! I really wouldn’t change a thing. It’s an eye-catcher! Nice job. “Carolyn’s” I like the photo that shows how the clinging cross works. It’s nice to see different type being used. It is fuzzy a little.

3. Hill Country Community Journal, Kerrville — “Celia’s Closet” Love the image choice. The font works really well with it. “Moore’s” Very clean looking. Nice font choice. I like the way you called out the furnishings in the photo. “SPMH” Very cute! Nice work in Photoshop with the baby image. Can hardly tell the clipping path.

4. Rockwall County News — “Rotary” The header text is a bit fuzzy. Love the image. “House ad connect” Very sweet photo. Would like to see a textured background and not just white. “House ad soar” Image is fuzzy, but I like the ad idea just like the connect ad.

Division 9 Small Medium Weeklies

1. The Clarendon Enterprise “DDS” Very cute picture. Like the font that you used for the “bad breath?” “50 Santa” What a deal! It really brings your eye to the ad. “House ad” Love that you have white space and didn’t close the circle.

2. Cooper Review — “FNB” Love it. Nice clean image and logo. “House ad” Very nice house ad. I would have made the classified ads type bold, just like you did with the pay. “Gary McCain” Way to dress up a political ad.

3. Frankston Citizen — “Frankston Health cat” Ad series very cute idea. It showcases all the different event, places and help that is offered. “Health frogs” Nice idea. Need to make sure text is not right up the border of the boxes. See protest signs. “Health fish” Love this ad series. Shirley looks so happy in the photo. The printing press is a little off. Four-color in bleeding can see the “m” plate slipped which makes the photo fuzzy.

4. The Olney Enterprise — “First United Methodist” Love the different images. You really showed the true meaning of Easter! “Happy 4th” Like that you used the stars to showcase the price. Nice background image. “Olney Tire” This ad is the weakest of the three. I would have just stayed with one kind of image and not used line drawing, tone art and a photo. It doesn’t blend well.

Division 10 Small Weeklies

1. The Gazette, Alvord — “TXI” Love the photo, very clean, crisp, not fuzzy at all. Love the border and the way you have the text go over the bottom photo. “Buttons” Love this ad. Shows that you don’t need four-color to have an ad stand out. I love the use of the different fonts, but you also know when to say enough. This is the strongest of the three ads. I didn’t have any problems with this ad. Nice job. Many people in your division are afraid to change it up a bit, but not you. “Poster” Nice photos. Love the font choices

2. Keene Star — “Preferred Image” Like the color. Logo is very fuzzy. Nice photo and a nice way to use the colors from the photo into the copy of the ad. Make sure you do a better job getting the background out of images. Example the image that you used in the corners still has white spots in it. I like that image, nice touch. “Keene Auto” Very plain looking. This is the weakest of the three ads. Spice it up with different type. “Fonts are your friends.” “Southern Adventist” Nice ad. Love the snap shots. Love the gray out line through the photo. Takes your eyes to the school’s name.

3. The Overton Press — “Loving family” This is the strongest of the three ads. Loved all the photos and the border is very cute. I would have played with the type a bit. “3D Construction” Nice tag line, but spice it up with the type. The photo feels like it’s a different ad. It’s not meshing well with the tag line. “First State Bank” This is the weakest of the three ads. The logo is very fuzzy and you are losing a lot of dots on the image and type. Liked the body dopy type choice, but I would have played around a bit with the header.

4. Murphy Monitor — “Avon” Nice way to match the body copy text to the logo. Also like that the text goes over the photo. “Dentist” Kids pic always helps in ad. It’s a perfect one too because of her smile and baby teeth showing. Perfect for the dentistry ad. “Chili cook off” Like the chili pot image. It’s got a water color feel to it. Also like the “chili cook off” font. It would have been nice to see it again somewhere in the bottom. Like where you placed the Web site.