Texas Press Association

1. Odessa American. Very strong news and feature photography: crisp. Whole package was enjoyable to see.

style='mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:12.75pt .35in; mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>2. New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung. Darnall does good work! Good photo composition, subject matter. Good, clear shots.

style='mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:12.75pt .35in; mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>3. Beaumont Enterprise. If your photos are as good year ‘round as in these two issues, your readers must love you.

style='mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:12.75pt .35in; mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>4. Brazosport Facts. Good creativity shown in average situations. Feature photos on race were good.

Division 2 Dailies 7,000 or less

GENERAL EXCELLENCE

1. Pasadena Citizen. Clean, attractive paper, very strong news content on page 1. Interesting grade scandal. Terrific people-oriented profiles, blah covers, though. No indexing.

2. Waxahachie Daily Light. Sharp, interesting page 1. Great graphics. Too many jumps. Strong, dominant art on page 1. Inside pages should look as good as page 1. Lifestyle dominated by weddings, engagements, clubs. Clean opinion design, few letters.

3. Stephenville Empire-Tribune. Well-designed front page. Tight writing. Try softer tones rather than primary colors. Strong hard news. Rethink color screens. Several registration problems. I like the page briefs. Use two-line heads so you can convey a complete thought.

4. Mount Pleasant Daily Tribune. Two good stories, fire and twister, carried news content. Lots of wire fill. Use dominant art for more impact. Good page 1 on April 19. In retrospect. News judgment was off on the OKC bombing. At least a teaser on April 19.

ADVERTISING

1. Taylor Daily Press. (No comment.)

2. Waxahachie Daily Light. (No comment.)

3. Hereford Brand. (No comment.)

4. Snyder Daily News. (No comment.)

COLUMN WRITING

1. Taylor Daily Press, Brian Smith. Well done. I could almost see Martha.

2. Waxahachie Daily Light, Patricia C. Stumb. This is a great column. I’m glad your son is only three. He might consider getting a lawyer! Really well done.

3. Waxahachie Daily Light, Allan Taylor. Good piece. Nice touch on an otherwise dull subject.

4. Athens Daily Review, Benny Rogers. Good local color piece. What a horrible tragedy — a coach’s nightmare.

EDITORIALS

1. Gainesville Register, Jerry Prickett. This nails them, and they deserve to be nailed. Keep up the good work!

2. Taylor Daily Press. A turnaround editorial. Good treatment of what really could be mundane.

3. Snyder Daily News. Good local effort. I sympathize.

4. Pasadena Citizen. Good job. Hope you always do it that way.

FEATURE STORY

1. Stephenville Empire-Tribune. Christi Mays. What a treat the liquid gold feature was. Both features by Christi Mays took readers where they otherwise would not have gone. They were well written and well displayed with good selection of photos.

2. Waxahachie Daily Light, Patricia C. Stumb. Nice photo, good lead, good job of telling readers this isn’t just another good old boy who made it to the bench. She’s a woman with a better-than-average background as a judge. Nice job.

3. Vernon Daily Record, Joyce Ann Ashley. Nice use of type faces makes this a good-looking package. Good job of story telling in first. part of story, then I got. confused. Transition between father might have been helped with subheads. Story has numerous sources. I like that.

4. Mount Pleasant Daily Tribune, Scott Reese Willey. What a story! Nice detail, good use of quotes, and not. too long, considering the subject matter. However, why did you jump to two different pages? Also pay closer attention to AP stylebook and grammar. Try using extended hyphen instead of double dashes. But, I give you high marks on writing. Copy was compelling.

NEWS WRITING

1. Waxahachie Daily Light. Well done. Writing is crisp, leads generally tight. Trial coverage well done. Lots of local.

2. Pasadena Citizen. Good active writing, stories well edited. Crisp leads. Good balance of sources in stories.

3. Athens Daily Review. Good, crisp writing. Tighten leads a bit to ease readers. Good ghost piece. Did the club cancel your membership? Sports previews look and read well.

4. Sweetwater Reporter. Good, timely topics. Some breaking news and features. Writing needs to be more crisp. Tighten leads a bit. I liked snake charmer piece. Battered women story reads well.

SPORTS COVERAGE

1. Pasadena Citizen. Very good section — well done — and good local coverage.

2. Stephenville Empire-Tribune. (No comment.)

3. Huntsville Item. Nice writing, section put together well. Good art.

4. Alice Echo-News. Overall good section, however, drop the coach’s corner.

BEST INDIVIDUAL PHOTO

1. Pasadena Citizen, John Rowland. Great picture illustrates story. Great impact.

2. Athens Daily Review, Aaron Skinner. Great action, right place, right time.

3. Alice Echo-News. Good eye for features. Better press work would have helped impact of the picture.

4. Pecos Enterprise. Super kid picture. Readers love these. Good size. It’s nice to see a newspaper that uses a good sports feature out front.

BEST USE 0F PHOTOS

1. Pasadena Citizen. Good use of color, good layout.

2. WaxahachieDaily Light. Liked the photo essay concept. I can see where it could be very popular with readers.

3. Taylor Daily Press. Very good use of good black and white photos on front page.

4. Huntsville Item. Good layout of photos on section fronts.

Division 3 Semiweeklies 4,001 or more

GENERAL EXCELLENCE

1. Round Rock Leader. Strong showing in all categories brought you to the top. Good job.

2. Williamson County Sun. Broad coverage of news presented in good layouts.

3. Moore County News-Press. Well-rounded newspaper scored high in all areas of competition.

4. Hood County News. Good newspaper scored you close to the top in all categories.

ADVERTISING

1. Hood County News. Great paper. Obviously you have a very aggressive ad department and talented group of designers. I would suggest making the type stand out a little more.

2. Marble Falls Highlander. Wonderful paper. I wanted to read every ad and I did with ease. Focus on your typography a little more and you’ll be there.

3. (tie) Wise County Messenger. Your halftones in ads are wonderful. I would suggest being more creative with your type.

3. (tie) Round Rock Leader. Very creative. I would suggest changing and mixing up your typography a bit.

4. Houston County Courier. Very nice. I would suggest better halftones and better typography. There’s a book on the market for halftones called “Photoshop Black & White.” If you don’t have it, I would suggest investing in it.

COLUMN WRITING

1. Uvalde Leader-News, Bill Cockerill. Good, descriptive phrases. Colorful. I could picture Joe Harry. You must have quite a following.

2. Round Rock Leader, Brad Stutzman. April 24: Great descriptive phrases. “The week the madness came and kicked in our door” and more.

3. Marble Falls Highlander, Billy Berkenbile. Well done.

4. Round Rock Leader, Sharon Gollop. May 4: Every woman’s refrigerator in town must have had your column in it that week.

EDITORIAL

1. Moore County News-Press, Todd Hepler. Good attention, commanding lead, well-reasoned and convincing.

2. Cedar Creek Pilot. Heavy material. Bold stance. I thought it was good.

3. Cedar Creek Pilot, Chip Souza. Good ending to a necessary editorial. Very relevant to community.

4. Wise County Messenger, Julie Porter. Good argument, backed well.

FEATURE STORY

1.Williamson County Sun, Holly Arceneau. Excellent photo package. Concise, easy reading.

2. Cedar Creek Pilot, Chip Souza. Excellent lead. Great writing.

3. Marble Falls Highlander. Lead rambled a bit, but great job.

4. Hood County News, Shirley Petroshus. Excellent lead. It would have been powerful to see a photo of the dad climbing or loaded with the pack, etc.

NEWS WRITING

1. Polk County Enterprise. Special high marks on leads because your writers manage interesting openings not only on big stories such as the fire and the murder, but even on less dramatic topics such as FEMA buy-outs or juvenile curfews.

2. Williamson County Sun. Good job of taking non-local stories such as the OKC bombing or Earth Day and giving a local angle. “A” for thoroughness and effort on your disaster stories. Are all your weeks like this? But I would have preferred tighter writing. With stories this big, keep sentences simple and depend on the drama of the event to keep the reader interested.

3. Round Rock Leader. Good leads. Compliments especially to Brad Stutzman. Coverage got lower marks because the news judgment threw me. You had a dramatic helicopter crash, but your lead at the top of the page was an increase in property values?

4. Moore County News-Press. Good, simple, direct leads catch the reader’s interest while summing up the story well.

SPORTS COVERAGE

1. Williamson County Sun. Excellent sec ion, well-rounded, great art.

2. Marble Falls Highlander. (No comment.)

3. Wise County Messenger. Great art, layout is excellent, nice section.

4. Graham Leader. Good layout and writing.

BEST INDIVIDUAL PHOTO

1. Lamesa Press Reporter, Russel Skiles. This is a great photo, the best in this category. Captures reader interest, tells the story and then makes the reader want to know. The suspects have their hands up in the car and that is good on photographer’s part.

2. Williamson County Sun. Jeff Thompson. Excellent photo, almost won. Expression and emotion are focused. No problem knowing what this is all about. Keep up the good work.

3. Polk County Enterprise, Gordon LaBarron. Great expressions on baby’s and mom’s faces. Catches lots of emotion. Anxiety runs high. Baby is not sure what’s happened.

4. Hood County News, Roger Enlow. Offering comfort has good reader impact, shows good facial expression. Ranks fourth in this competitive category.

BEST USE OF PHOTOS

1. Hood County News. Great job. Good use of excellent photos.

2. Round Rock Leader. Hats off to Terry Hagerty.

3. Burleson Star. Good job.

4. Graham Leader. Fishing layout was great.

GENERAL EXCELLENCE

1. Rockwall Texas Success. A weekly that gets immediacy on the front page: Excellent job at giving timely news. Good briefs package on -page 1. Dominant design elements. Attractive. Consistency throughout. Newsy. Good packaging. Lots of jumps. Good opinion page and reader input.

2. Clear Lake Citizen. Lots of impact on page 1. Two strong local stories. Any way to give the fire story .a more current spin? Does the spot color detract from four-color photos? Attractive typography. Good progress edition.

3. Canyon News. Good job with tornado coverage. How could you give it a timelier spin? Re-evaluate use of spot color. Different body type sizes is disconcerting.

4. Angleton Times. Neat design on page 1. Nov. 11 issue needs stronger art. Sept. 16 issue needs strong art displayed better. Great bug package: photo, inset box, headline, story. Sophisticated look. Gray screens are too dark. Page 1 color screen allows easy reading. Inside flags are not attractive.

ADVERTISING

1. Clear Lake Citizen. Simply excellent examples of good advertising in the five areas being judged. Would assume readers truly look forward to getting The Citizen. It’s top flight. Certainly No. 1 in its division.

2. Canyon News. Discover Canyon insert particularly well done. Creative use of photos enhances ads. Nice presentation. Deserving of a strong second: place finish in its division.

3. Andrews County News. Welcome Home Exes issue well done. Good use of second color. Photos, too, were above average. Did very well overall. No doubt it has earned a commendable third.

4. Childress Index. A solid entry. Did well, basically in all five elements. Ranked fourth in a very competitive division. Well done, indeed.

COLUMN WRITING

1. Childress Index, Morris Higley. (No comment.)

2. Childress Index, Morris Higley. Nice column. Good to see the fund drive through the eyes of Chris. Made it very interesting.

3. Childress Index, Clemi Higley Blackburn. Great lead, nice analogy. Catchy.

4. (tie) Liberty Vindicator, Homer Smith. (No comment.)

4. (tie) Angleton Times, Doreen Howard. Good info about rosemary and ants.

EDITORIAL

1. Clear Lake Citizen. My primary question is: Was Nutting acting in a disruptive manner or just addressing the board? Very good editorial about a topic that happens everywhere: public officials who act irresponsibly and can’t tolerate an opposing view.

2. Angleton Times, Tammy Crow. Clearly one of the best single editorials submitted in this category.

3. Rockwall Texas Success, Happens all too often. Definitely not just a “Texas state of mind.”

4. Liberty Vindicator. Ditto, Oct. 4. All too often, people send in those obnoxious cards without even taking into consideration the newspaper they’re going to.

FEATURE STORY

1. Angleton Times, Rachelle Kanak. Good lead. Your headline type tells the reader right off, here’s something a little special for you today. Story does a good job of explaining the problem and the family’s struggle. Good last graph.

2. Lampasas Dispatch Record, Sherree Casper-Willard. Try using extended hyphens instead of two dashes. What an interview. The guy rubbed shoulders with some of the best-known Americans of my lifetime. Lead could have been much stronger. Good use of quotes. Very strong entry.

3. Bowie News, Barbara Beckwith. Nice layout, good photos on pointer story. Solid writing. You give me one good sentence after another in an organized fashion.

4. Rockwall Texas Success, Judy Thurmond. Good headline. Lead gets me into the story from child’s point of view. I like that. Good quote: “They did more than murder than man.” Nice job.

NEWS WRITING

1. Rockwall Texas Success. Looks as if your city council needs to put up some “keep off the grass” signs. Above average writing on interesting topics. Housing chief interview shows how important quotes are. Without quotes, the story would have snored. Zimmerman lead, May 19, page 11, too long.

2. Clear Lake Citizen. April 19 issue has very good front page. “Engarde” is on target. Barely nudged Out of first place. Note: former astronaut Gordon Cooper is from Pottawatomie County, Okla.

3. Quanah Tribune-Chief. Tough issues being faced in March 16 issue. Good interview with Brown.

4. Angleton Times. Good “Iron Butt” piece. I hate the headline font, but didn’t count off for it. Deer meat lead too-long. Interesting prisoner piece. Technically good writing, but nothing awesome to push it over the top.

SPORTS COVERAGE

1. Rockwall Texas Success. Excellent writing, overall good coverage on a variety of sports.

2. Angleton Times. (No comment.)

3. Rockwall Chronicle. Good special section on volleyball.

4. Andrews County News. (No comment.)

BEST INDMDUAL PHOTO

1. Angleton Times Tommy Crow. Great feature photo, well planned, super impact with story. Nice job.

2. Liberty Vindicator, Wanda Faulkner. Nice candid picture of what is usually an average assignment. Lots of kids’ faces and good expressions. Nice color reproduction.

3. Perryton Herald. Fun feature photos. Caught the action just write.

4. Clear Lake Citizen. Love the big photos on page 1. Nice angle, good cropping. Nice photo. Good play by editor helped impact.

BEST USE OF PHOTOS

1. Canyon News. May 11: Take that blue off your front page. It’s too strange. Good coverage of the damage. Variety of photo size is good. Page 8 stretch photo should have been three columns wide. Remember, cutlines should be present tense. Use AP style.

2. Quanah Tribune-Chief. You do a good job of covering local events. Keep up the efforts. The boy kissing the baby should have been enlarged. Don’t be afraid to be proud of your photos.

3. Perryton Herald. April 9: Front-page photos same size. Even if it’s a poor photo or the only photo you have, be proud of it. The two guards should have been three columns wide. Nov. 19: Big, bold, good. Section B was a bit on the too-cute side, but I’m sure they loved it. Even though the story was on page 2 you needed at least a side cutline explaining what was going on. No prominent photo and layout lacked.

4. Lampasas Dispatch Record. April 27: Your strongest photo was on page 5. You need to get someone, everyone out there taking pictures. Your front page is in desperate need of art. Then, July 13 is full of great photos, so you must have, wasted talents. On all pages there’s one picture that stands out as being the one that should have been your lead photo. Page 1, the boy fishing, and next, the boy and dog. Start your design from the main photo and make creative layout. Don’t just use same-size photos. Brag on that talent. You don’t have to use all the photos.