Texas Press Association
Division 7 Weeklies 2,001 to 3,000
Division 8 Weeklies 1,201 to 2,000
Division 9 Weeklies Less Than 1,200
Division 6 Weeklies More Than 3,000
General Excellence
1. DeSoto Today — Very, very solid entry. Lots of color, lots of news. The top 4 papers in this category are all winners. Excellent people section.
2. Austin Business Journal — This entry has it all, except great photo. Wonderful graphics, clean crisp appearance. Excellent headlines.
3. Park Cities People — Love inside promos on front. Love people section, society. Sept. 17 front page outstanding. Nice photos. Color reproduction could have been better on Feb. 5.
4. Duncanville Today — A solid entry. Would have liked to have given all the top 4 entries first place. Great front-page photos. “Remembering Brad” story was wonderful. Great color photos, especially July 4th. Didn’t like splitting of sports coverage on Plano-Duncanville football game.
News Writing
1. The Jasper NewsBoy — Leads are good. The news is high. Stories are organized well. Sentences are a little long. Good detail.
2. Pleasanton Express — AP Style errors. “While this allegation …” What does this sentence mean? What is ISD? Lose the government legalese, kill the procedure and put this in context: why should the reader care? So what somebody resigned, what does it meand for the school system? And what about the principal who wasn’t fired? Whey was the former superintendent quoted? Or the interim super? Or anybody? Good enterprise on Horizons story! Well-organized, well-written, no holes. The story is put in perspective by quoting sentatnional source, they human element is there. Good story!
3. The Banner Press Newspaper, Columbus — What was the discriminatroy comment? Story was interesting and written well, but I would have liked more detail about why he was fired. What was the discriminatory comment? Does this story indicate the need for further investigation of this dept.? Two people suspended for discriminatory comments and one later fired? Quotes a bit long. Be careful not to let someone else tell your story. You’re the reporter and writer. Also when you have to use one bracketed in a quote to clarify OK. But if every quote requires it, paraphrase. Don’t tell me the process, put the story in context. Why should the reader care about this issue? Who “alleged” this man didn’t live in precinct? Attribution, attribution, attribution. The residing in a post office box quote is good! I think you could have played with the lead to reflect the home being in Precinct 1, whiel his mailbox was in Precincnt 2. Would have been an interesting way to draw in the reader. A lot of passing the blame in the bottom half of story. Who is responsible for verifying address of candidates? Story is written well and organized well.
4. The Rockdale Reporter — Good lead and good organization. Don’t’ know that you should have asked a questions in your story, but the questions was a good one. Probably what most readers wanted to know. Good job tying breaking news with the water shortage issue in the lead. Not necessary to name each and every firefighter. Is everyone shocked? Probably not. Don’t editorialize ina news story. You tell me three times in one graph that he died of a heart attack. Enough already with the grief stricken mourner quotes. The info about Kubiak should have gone higher. Theis story needs reogranization.
Column Writing
1. The Rockdale Reporter — Bill Cooke “Spoilin’ the broth” Well-written. Flows well. Made me laugh out loud. Freat style. Clever idea!
2. The Jasper NewsBoy — Willis Webb “Is there an invisible wall” Excellent content and style! Very insightful, sensitively handled. “Can you lend your raising to some other worthy cause” Funny! Trus! The lead is excellent and idea of “the cat from hell” is hoot!
3. Austin Business Journal — Rickie Windle “Earning an advanced degree” Great blending of humor with a message. “Where nobody cares who you are” Very warm, moves quickly. Interesting.
4. Fort Stockton Pioneer — Jeff McDonald “Naaah, it’s the Steelers” Flows well. Writer has a way with words. “Final orders” Excellent. Very warm and well-written. (Gave me goosebumps.)
Editorial
1. Austin Business Journal — “So long friend” Great tribute to an outstanding journalist. Passionately and compellingly written. “Let’s be honest” Loved it.
2. The Jasper NewsBoy — “Entire community needs to reject all hate groups” Good. Good. Good. But avoid passive voice. “Byrd family, leadership, law enforcement assets to area” The best possible position in the midst of a terrible tragedy. Congratulations on your paper’s leadership (evidence in the whole paper) and the sympathy of the nation for you community’s pain.
3. River Cities Tribune, Marble Falls — “Is a sting the right thing?” Thoughful. Interesting. Well-written. “Sex lies and videotape” Good writing, but who are you blaming? The jury, the prosecutor, the defense, the judge, the system? You pointed out well that she got a bum deal. How do we fix it?
4. Westlake Picayune — “Let the healing begin” I like your premise: Learn fromprevious “nos” and propose a seoelction of fixes. Good balanced point of view and strong writing. “The real hero in the Scaggs case” Editorialists should do this more. Search for and identify public stewards doing job admirably. Good writing.
Feature Story
1. River Cities Tribune, Marble Falls — Dan Clifton “Vietnam Memorial” Good story. Concise and to the point. Excellent photos. “Touched by a library angel” The face of an angel, this lade. Loved the story. Would have like a closer up shot of her face.
2. Duncanville Today — Kevin Bowen “Fighter pilot” Great story. Combines yesteryear with present. Good photos especially liked “Dallas Darlin.” Kristi Tucker “The eyes of a child” Great story and photos. Wish we could awards two first places.
3. The Banner Press Newspaper, Columbus — Herbert Kollatschny “Raymond brings something special to Tigers” Difficult subject presented well. Strong story. Would like to have seen another photo. Pat Vornkahl “Grace hopes to reide gracefully to Olympics” Needed to be a bit stronger on story with perhaps another photo.
4. Austin Business Journal — Rickie Windle “Gambler, Democrat, Salesman & Marketer” Eye-catching photo and heading. A little wordy. “ Daryl Janes “Part wisdom, part luck” Good story on an interesting (subject). Wish subject 1 had been as good.
Sports Coverage
1. Park Cities People — Photos as crisp as any in this category. Bulk of stories is eye-catching. Overall, writing is strong with several good leads. From design standpoint, the one-column teaser on the right is appealing. Headlines are your weak point. It looks like headlines are stuck at 36-pt. Go bigger for important stories! Try going up to 60 or 72 pt and see what you think. Then you could include 24-pt subheads or something like that for more vanity. Also, if you’re looking to refine a top-notch product, try some sort of graph, inset or bigger text box. Below the fold on Aug. 20 issue has two long columns of nothing but text. Ideally, this should be broken up so it’s not so daunting to the casual reader. Good work!
2. The Rockdale Reporter — Good dominant photos that display key point in game. It must be nice shooting football during the day. Paper has strong layout, good feel. It’s light, airy without too much text all in a row to bog readers down. It’d put more stories on your 1-B and save stuff like box scores and standing for inside. When they play would be something good for the top of 2-B. Just a notch below No. 1, the Park Cities People.
3. Fredericksburg Standard/Radio-Post — Your photos are the dlearest and have best reporduction of any paper in this class. And your volume of coverage is impressive. The writing is middle-of-the-road. A strong story is followed by a less-tha-memorable effort. The folks of your community should be pleased to have such a comprehensive sports section. You cover it all. Headlines are aggravating with the ragged right on subhead. There is not reason for that. It looks high schoolish. A little more work could land you in top two.
4. The Free Press, Diboll — The fact you have a 3x10 ad on the front page stinks. What a design obstacle! Your photos are strong. Writing is solid. Inside pages have depth. Get them to take that ad off and really go to town.
Advertising
1. Park Cities People — Great line, nice, gorgeous. Clean, well done. Nicely done. Clean, attractive.
2. Westlake Picayune — Great, clean, effective, good pictures, well done. Good approach. Good print job on this attractive ad.
3. Hondo Anvil Herald — Like this. Attractive, the gold makes it work. Clean ad. Good job.
4. River Cities Tribune, Marble Falls — Funny ad, attractive, eye-catching. Too much of same font and size. Font is hard to read but ad is attractive.
Photography
1. Park Cities People — Jake Dean - “Difficult task” Awesome photo. “Overslide” Great stop action. Shanna Sargent – “After the fall” Good human emotion.
2. Jasper NewsBoy — Mike Journee – “His grandfather taught him” Very nice photo! David Luther – “Homecoming glow” Another great shot! “The new royalty” These are hard to shoot unposed, but try to get them in middle of hugging or celebrating next time. Good photo though.
3. Duncanville Today — “Scooter” Great shot!! “The celebration” Upper left is the better photo in my opinion but all are nice. David Goodspeed – “Duncanville fire engine” Average photo but I like it.
4. The Madisonville Meteor — Gus Morgan – These are all great shots.
Page Design
1. Duncanville Today — The design is superb. It is evident that many people are excellent at their jobs. For a weekly publication, the paper blows all the other out of the water! Keep up the good work.
2. Park Cities People — This paper is clean and eye appealing. The only major difference between this paper and first place was that the 1st place had bigger headlines at top fold. Editorial page was too gray. Overall we loved it, though!
3. The Examiner, Navasota — The front page looks great. It had a wonderful picture. All three headline were too close to the same size. Copy on the editorial page appeared too big. We would have liked to see D-1 (sports) without ads.
4. Jasper NewsBoy — The front page layout was excellent, but the color photos could be improved. More vivid color. Inside box could easily have been a color screen. We liked the society focus. Sports page was good. Editorial page could use art-cartoon to break page.
Division 7 Weeklies 2,001 to 3,000
General Excellence
1. Colleyville News & Times — Good use of photos. Makes the news like eye candy. An overall good looking newspaper. Good use of color in layout and photos.
2. Deer Park Progress — Front pages look really nice. Great use of color and layout looks good. Good layout on inside. Everything is easy to find.
3. The Frisco Enterprise Newspaper — Good, colorful subjects for front page photo. Like the photo features. Very nicely done.
4. Lancaster Today — Front pages look very good. Good color photos and story layout. Good features photography. I like the way sections are laid out. Good looking paper.
Newswriting
1. The Free Press, Buda — Good solid, well reported news stories. Good analysis and explanation. The absentee story may be a little too long for the subject matter. (It’s not necessary to have a quote for almost every fact.) The shrimp farm story is in-depth reporting. Maybe a good paragraph explaining the significance of the controversy to the town (a “nutgraph”) would have helped. But keep up the good work! It’s good that a community newspaper is devoted to this kind of in-depth reporting.
2. The Shiner Gazette — These are sold, well-reported stories on news of importance to the Gazette’s readers. The leads didn’t sensationalize the news. The coverage of the flooding contained good stories from ordinary residents hit by the rising water. The hepatitis story was balanced, informative and did not attempt to “scare” the resident. The explanations from health officials put the outbreak into perspective. Good work.
3. San Jacinto News-Times, Shepherd — Good strong news writing! I had a pretty clear understanding of what was happening in both stories by the end. But that was the one problem with both stories: it took several paragraphs into the articles to find out the “news behind the news.” I think the lead on the “judge resign” story could have cited the judge’s differences with the commissioners cout members, which appeared to be the real reason for his resignation, as opposed to him no longer being able to do the job, as the lead said. Similarly, I would have put in the lead of the jailed man’s story that being jailed for not paying a debt was a violation or one that he alleged was a violation of the Texas Constitution.
4. Cedar Hill Today — These are good solid news stories that inform Cedar Hill’s citizens of important events (we recognize that in Texas, high school sports is front-page news.) The leads are concise. Stories are well-written. Good use of quotes.
Column Writing
1. Mineola Monitor — Sheilah Pepper “A silent place” Well done. One of the best columns in this division. Good work! “Letting the sun shine in” Well said. Slow getting started but point well made.
2. The Frisco Enterprise Newspaper — Tom Beesley “A deal’s a deal” Sounds familiar. Has an interesting twist. “An unknown soldier” Good column reflecting many truths.
3. The Portland News — Eddie Davis “The president’s life in our business” Very logical and well-said! “The deadly glare of baldness” Great imagination. Good use of words.
4. Medina Valley Times, Lytle — Natalie Spencer “Hitting home” Point well taken. Good job! “When enough is enough” Excellent focus on the problem of bully men.
Editorial
1. Lancaster Today — “4A funds can be used to help Town Square” Broad-based insight. Local subject. Well-presented. “Town recall effort another sad chapter” Lots of reasoning. Well-explained.
2. The Free Press, Buda — Bob Barton “Two steps in the right direction” Kinda long but well done. Liked your finale. “Nabobs of negativity should be ignored” Well done.
3. Copperas Cove Leader-Press — “In our opinion” subject hit home with me. Well-written for the average guy like me. “Our town” Good local issue. Good point.
4. Aransas Pass Progress — John Lowman “What they deserve” Great local issue. Well-stated. “Watching big brother” Local folks ought to know.
Feature Story
1. The Free Press, Buda — Jana Ritter “Paving the road to success” Interesting piece and that’s saying a lot considering the subject matter: a road-grading machine. Good job! Diana Hutts Aston “Remembering Mama” Excellent piece. A fine tribute. By far one of the better pieces of writing in this division.
2. Big Bend Sentinel, Marfa — Dick Sheffield “Reata chef a West Texas success story” Nice storytelling touches. Read Jon Frazer’s “Writing for Story” for more tips. Sterry Butcher “Artist balances past notoriety” What a character. Good use of quotes.
3. The Cedar Hill Sentinel — Lou Antonelli “Origins of Mr. Sims revealed” Nice storytelling touches on both of these stories. Good use of quotes. Every town needs a Mr. Sims.
4. Aransas Pass Progress — Bill DeFries “Scott learning to swim again” Nice storytelling touches, good use of quotes. “Challenge” Same as “Scott.” This is a solid entry.
Sports Coverage
1. Colleyville News & Times — Outstanding!
2. The Frisco Enterprise Newspaper — Outstanding effort. Excellent variety of sports included.
3. Lancaster Today — Nice feature photo of soccer coached. Excellent photo spread on track. Overall good job!
4. Lake Travis View — Overall nice job, good layout and design.
Advertising
1. Colleyville News & Times — “Cappagallo” Love it! Very good use of color. “Uncle Jais” Very original. I love the color on a black background. Looks great! “Heritage Vet” A little goofy. Gets attention I guess.
2. Aransas Pass Progress — “Business honor roll” Good sig page. “Safety tips” Good idea, but tips should be larger than the sponsors. “Carriage Inn” Very nice, good color.
3. Crowley Star-Review — “Reliant Pest Control” Love it! “Texas Bank” Logo is a little faded-out, but I like it. “Doug Leavitt” Nice ad, good color.
4. The Frisco Enterprise Newspaper — “Education” Very nice, eye-catching, original. “Subscription” Too white Needs screen or reverse. Space well though. “3000 trucks” Good use of spot color.
Photography
1. Lancaster Today — Bobbie Jamison “Graduation” Great moment-catching spot. Reproduction is pretty good. “Oh yeah … that’s hot” I like this. The photo tells it all. A different andle or closer shot might have made it better. Tom Beesley “Lady Tiger” Nice shot. Great job of capturing the moment. Color is good.
2. Colleyville News & Times — Aaron Seamster “Stop” This caught my eye and made want to read more. Nice shot. “Getting to know you” I love this. Just a cute shot. A great job os getting the moment on film. Shawn Yorks “Joy and pain” This tells the story.
3. Cedar Hill Today — David Goodspeed “Cross of Christ” Interesting shot. Good angle. “Wreck” Shot tells the story. Good reproduction. Tom Beesley “Fire” Awesome shot. Fire shots are always good. Use of firemen and water makes the shot.
4. The Frisco Enterprise Newspaper — Tom Beesley “Umbrellas” Interesting shot. Ties in with local problem. “Hot wheels” Good action shot. “Sleepy ballerina” Good shot. Reproduction is a little grainy.
Page Design
1. Frisco Enterprise Newspaper – We were very impressed with the front page paper. It gave the front a cleaner, more colorful look. The overall layout of the sports page was balanced and eye-catching. We would have liked to have seen a full-page lifestyle pages that did not have advertising on it. The editorial page layout was excellent.
2. Colleyville News & Times – Front-page layout was appealing, including “inside” bar; we did not like to see advertising on the editorial page. The lifestyles graphics were phenomenal, but we almost mistook it for a full-page ad for Paige’s Furniture store. The sports page was informative and clean.
3. Cedar Hill Today – The front page was colorful and somewhat eye-appealing; however, it appeared overly busy. The lifestyle photos were layed out in good taste. We particularly enjoyed the editorial pages. It was not as gray as many we have seen.
4. Copperas Cove Leader-Press — The front page was eye-appealing on the top fold, but we had problems with the out-of-place black and white photo at bottom, along with the article that wrapped around another story. The editorial page was top-notch. We would have preferred to have seen a full-page lifestyles and a full pages sports without ads sharing those pages.
Division 8 Weeklies 1,201 to 2,000
General Excellence
1. The Community News, Aledo — Excellent photos throughout. "Flying High" and "Making the stop" are outstanding. Wonderful use of typography and artwork. Very professional look. The winner but in a very, very close race. No front page jumps - outstanding.
2. Midlothian Today — Tough decision between first and second. Great "people" stories with lots of good color. Solid writing. Excellent designs.
3. The Citizen, Clear Lake — Good color, especially sailing photo. Need to make jumps to same page when possible. Strong writing. Good coverage overall.
4. Friendswood Journal — Nice color. Like school emphasis. Solid writing. Very strong entry. Storm coverage outstanding.
Newswriting
1. Castroville News-Bulletin – Great enterprise on survey story! Good detail on rescue story, but lead is a little too long.
2. Big Sandy & Hawkins Journal – Timeline is nice addition to resignation story. Excellent enterprise on school situation.
3. Alvarado Star Bulletin – Good straight news story on missing man. Classic style. Same for police resignation story.
4. Joshua Star Tribune – Good effort on seeking comments from reluctant city officials in “Bryant.” Ditto on “former police.”
Column Writing
1. The Community News, Aledo — Randy Keck "Chris Farley's death was no accident" not local but excellent comments. Well-written and presented. Liked the artwork in both columns. "True believers" Local and excellent and well-written.
2. The Hometown Press, Winnie — Lee Ashworth "First acupuncture now magnets" Both are well-written, edited and enjoyable to read. "Getting concerned about the Aggies" Must take a brave Texan to write about the Aggies this way ... but then again ...
3. The Dublin Citizen — Karen Wright "Stronger than the Clinton stench" I bet readers look forward to these columns. Use of art is a plus. "Shut your eyes" Writer shows she is capable of handling different subjects.
4. The Big Lake Wildcat — David Werst "West Texas" Last read. Deserves first place and would have with the exception of location. Page one is not it. Well-written and funny but needs another spot.
Editorials
1. The Big Lake Wildcat — David Werst "Open Government" Straightforward writing makes its point. Tell 'em what you're going to say, say it and tell 'em what you said. Conclusion ties back into lead. "Acing on impulse" Good lead. Use of italics is helpful. Paragraph that begins "The people of Big Lake are ... " is too long, should have been broken up. Persuasive argument. Well done!
2. The Canadian Record — "Water under the bridge" Some of this gets a bit hard to follow, but you state an opinion and lay out a logical reason for it. "Sudden friends of mercy" Your conclusion is found somewhere in the middle of the editorial and could have been stated earlier to make your point clearer.
3. The Dublin Citizen — Karen Wright "He who laughs lasts" Clever idea, though it takes the reader a little while to see what you're doing. The photos help. "Let's build an ark before it rain" What exactly is it you want done? I think it's to market your town's attraction on the new road so that the town won't die, but that's buried way down at the bottom. Some good logic here, but it needs sharpening.
4. The Times Tribune, Brookshire — Jan Mincy "Community development sales tax" and "End doesn't justify the means" (no comment)
Feature Story
1. The Community News, Aledo — Margaret Wintersole "Robots" Unique story. Good display. "D Bar B rich in Parker County" Great display. Photo needed heifers not dogs.
2. Midlothian Today — Brian Porter "Kelly Trojacek" Well done. Good photo helps. Great display. "A life's mission" Good story.
3. Palacios Beacon — Christopher McKelvy "Oriental traditions" Interesting - good display. Lane Hollister "Palacios motorists" Excellent display, photos. Well done!
4. Joshua Star Tribune — Daun Eierdam "Finnish, Russian sisters" Okay feature. "A profile in courage" This one grabs the reader. Good story.
Sports
1. Palacios Beacon — Good design, layout. Best writing in category. Excellent, broad coverage.
2. The Springtown Epigraph — Good job breaking up text. Good look. Best coverage in category. Means a lot!
3. The Community News, Aledo — Good use of headlines and subheads, as well as other graphic elements (stats boxes) to improve look, readability. Writing could be more interesting. Best photos in category. Very close for second.
4. Midlothian Today — Very sound overall. Writing could tighten up a little.
Advertising
1. The Irish Star News — "Happy New Year" Beautiful. "Shamrocks" Great use of color. "Chevy trucks" Nice ad.
2. The Springtown Epigraph — "First Bank" Nice use of color. "Seasons Greeting" A little much ... "Brazos Roofing" Nice art.
3. The Hansford County Reporter—Statesman, Spearman — "Grand re-opening" Nice photos. "Elementary bargains" Cute. "Thank you" Great color. Very nice ad.
4. Bosque County News, Meridian — "Back to school" Great looking ad. "Meridian Chamber" Cute! "Fall Premiere" Clean layout. Nice, almost too much!
Photography
1. The Canadian Record – “Bronc bustin” Great shot with imaginative approach! “Another Saturday night” I can practically hear the fiddles! “Cats take Spearman mudbath” Wonderful action!
2. The Hico News Review – “Looking up!” You caught a great moment in the game! “Hico Tiger football” Great action competition! “Tigers win district track titles” Great expression, terrific shot!
3. Springtown Epigraph – “The 1st annual Springtown PTA spelldown” This is my favorite photo in entire contest! It gives the viewer a laugh and a lift! Thanks Edwin! “Michael Johnson” Wonderful shot Shelly. Your photo says it all! “The porcupines” Good action, but hurt by production (the same thins happens on our press Mark.)
4. The Community News, Aledo – “State champions” Great shot Randy, the kind a photographer dreams of getting! “Rain dance” Wonderful Christopher. Full of life and fun! “Class of 2011” Imaginative composition, good color!
Page Design
1. The Community News, Aledo – Most attractive layout, crisp, easy to read, design superb!
2. Midlothian Today – Good looking paper. Photos are great. Good page layout on all pages.
3. The News—Dispatch, Dripping Springs – Photos are great, especially front page. Overall appearance of pages attractive.
4. The Ozona Stockman – Front page attractive, especially for three skyboxes, other pages a little weak.
Division 9 Weeklies Less Than 1,200
General Excellence
1. The Eldorado Success — Very good paper you have here. Apparent you have put thought into layout, story assignment, etc. I really like the look of your masthead.
2. The White Oak Independent — Overall a fine newspaper. It's apparent thought has been given to stories, make-up and overall look. Good job.
3. The Brackett News — Nice job overall. Attention to photo clarity needs to be addressed. Good use of a variety of stories on front page.
4. Keene Star Reporter — Overall a very good effort. Attention to headline and photos is needed but they are the weakest spots in these editions.
News Writing
1. The Clarendon Enterprise — Great job on skunk story! Should have had a byline though. Transformer story timely, too.
2. The Brackett News — Good short graphs with strong quotes. Look at what's next in both stories.
3. The Hart Beat — Good hard-hitting stories that affect the everyday lives of readers. Divide leads into two paragraphs.
4. The Eagle Press, Fritch — Police chief story well done since nobody's talking. What did chief's lawyer say? What did new chief say?
Column Writing
1. Eldorado Success – “Over the back fence” Convenience store story was a great little ? with a point. (Also I enjoyed the male chauvinist column but I can’t admit it in public.) Well-written with one excellent display draws attention to column.
2. The Eagle Press, Fritch – “As I see it” Good take about subjects anyone can relate to. Who hasn’t lost someone and felt guilt at not spending “enough” time? And who hasn’t been “adopted” to one time or another by a stray animal?
3. The Bullard Bulletin – “Through the years with Nell” Column is well displayed, an extra plus which hurt a few other well-written entries. “Through the Years with Nell” Neighborhood fued entertaining, well-written.
4. DeLeon’s Monitor – “I got a reason to lie” Catchy title, good display for column. Entertaining stories, well-written even if the “po’ cowboy boy” a bit overdone at times.
Editorial
1. The Clarendon Enterprise –“The Question of the medical center” Good explanation of a financial subject. Helps citizen to understand. Local flair gave this the top position. “Aldermen stall college program” Readers should thank paper for stepping out and explaining about politics. They may not appreciate it, but it’s needed.
2. The Eldorado Success – “Over the back fence” Right on the nose. Well-written. (as were both topics) but how much local appeal? “Over the back fence” The two paragraphs about “I resent the implication” and “as a citizen” let your personal anger through. I certainly understand, but this could have been eliminated.
3. Little Elm Journal – “Thinking out loud” Took the Y2K and made it of interest to local readers. “Thinking out loud” Pushing public to attend meetings is in right direction. More should be done to encourage public interest.
4. The International Presidio – “How about them Broncos!” Nice, but local. Well-written. “Major construction project” This is the kind of local view readers need.
Feature Story
1. The Clarendon Enterprise — Valerie Avery "A link to the past" Excellent feature presented in excellent manner enhanced by sparkling writing. "Golden Lady" Ditto from above! I am a features editor and writer and my compliments go to Valerie Avery, accomplished and professional!
2. Keene Star Reporter — Paul Gnadt "Principal recovering" Good handling to difficult subject. Good lead. "Chumley uses jail time" Another good example of professionalism in handling a difficult subject. Good lead Paul!
3. Motley County Tribune, Matador— Carla Meador "This ain't my last saddle" Well, I just loved this story! It needs a little bit of editing but that doesn't detract. Next time crop the dead space off sides of photo. I sure like the headline! Mary Meason "Memories of Class of 1948" Very good treatment of class anniversary story. I'm sure everyone read it!
4. Martin County Messenger, Stanton — Mona Hernandez "Sandrez comes back home" Needs byline and photo but good feature. "Deckers look forward to many precious moments" Well, I don't know who wrote these pieces because there's no byline, which I think they should have. Anyway, I appreciate the time and effort that went into these stories.
Sports Coverage
1. The Bulletin, Bullard — Nice mix of different sports with solid photos. Keep it up!
2. Stonewall County Courier, Aspermont — Good sports photos. Nice play. Use little less sports outside to get readers inside.
3. The White Oak Independent — Good range, good photos, but don't cheerlead.
4. The Little Elm Journal — Good range. Keep mixing sports so every reader gets something!
Advertising
1. The Eagle Press, Fritch — "Geralds" Darn good ad. Says it all. Everyone should have noticed. "Generation Next" Like the way you got readers to look. "Annzel" Nice use of copy, space. Your customers should be happy.
2. The White Oak Independent — Grocery ad is pretty average, however, easy to read and really helped by color. Good thing with Roughneck ad. Nice job all round. Great use of space/copy with Fishburn ad.
3. The Clarendon Enterprise — I liked the composition of college ad. Copy a bit hard to read. Nice hook, good use of small space is massage ad. Nice use of art/copy in bank ad.
4. The Bulletin, Bullard — Nice overall composition with Bullard ad. First National composition draws readers to ad. Right amount of copy.
Photography
1. The Eagle Press, Fritch — Debra Wells "Fritch volunteer firemen" A nice overall shot, played well. In focus and a good read even in black and white. "A Tarahumara Indian" A nice photo with good balanced light on subjects. A rare entry in this category, which was mostly crashed cars and high school football. "Wyman Meinzer" A good solid portrait. You're at a higher technical level than other photographers in this competition. Watch tiny background mergers like the edge of a leaf that pokes behind Meinzer's head.
2. The Eldorado Success — Kathy and Randy Mankin "Grim duty" A strong photo as far as accident scenes in this category. Though you can't see faces, the justice of the peace's bowed head reads grief. "Cow goes mooo" Good tight shot right in the middle of the ooo-o part. Watch flash. You're strobing your subject too hard. Try to bounce the light off a ceiling or wall or bounce card. "At least it wasn't Gatorade" Unfortunately I had to do a double-take on this one. The coach's face is masked by the water. Couldn't tell right away what was happening.
3. Martin County Messenger, Stanton — Mona Hernandez "I wonder what kindergarten is going to be like" Cute, clear and not one kid looking directly into the camera. Good job by Hernandez and a good, close crop. David Hernandez "Accident" Good. You're on scene and show far more human interaction than other spot-news entries in this category. Work on looking at what's behind the primary people in the photo. Look behind the left-hand officer's head. He's got a pole sprouting from his scalp. "Top ten graduates" Too many similar photos. Grab the obvious shots and then get to the edges. How were parents reacting? Anyone carrying signs to cheer on the grads? Any grads wearing goofy shoes or carrying special lucky charms? Give me details.
4. The Bulletin, Bullard — "Samantha Phillips" Cute but no real read. I can't tell she's waiting to play. I wish I could see a glove. Also, watch merges. Something in the background is growing out of her head. "The ayes have it" Finally ... emotion in spot news. Watch the use of your flash. It's making obvious shadows and bleaching your subject's faces. Bounce the light off ceiling or walls if possible. "Fragile" A cute feature but look for something other than a straighton shot next time.
Page Design
1. The Eldorado Success — Good page design. Headlines could be larger. Appearance of all pages neat, crisp!
2. The White Oak Independent — Front page looks great, especially splish splash photo. Could improve inside pages, especially sports.
3. The Eagle Press, Fritch — Overall appearance good. Headlines could be improved. Pictures look good.
4. The Brackett News — Graphics good, pictures' quality could improve. Good layout balance on front and editorial pages.
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