Texas Press Association
Division 6 Weeklies More Than 2,000
Division 7 Weeklies 1,000 to 2,000
Division 8 Weeklies Less Than 2,000
Division 5, metropolitan weeklies
Advertising
1. Dallas, Park Cities People. Nice idea to feature advertiser on front page wearing their own merchandise - different, innovative. Holiday Gift Guide: very good, adds style and grace to Christmas shopping ideas. Secret to Looking Sensational: truly that sensational layout, artwork. Real Estate: great section with emphasis on tips for home buying, selling, etc.
2. Nueces County Record-Star, Robstown. Great clarity in ads, wonderful presentation. A Season Remembered: good use of color. 4-H Section: very impressive.
3. Colleyville News &Times. Reflections of Home: Bravo! Superb! Excellent photography! Excellent section. Happy Holiday Realty Section: a real gem!
4. Park Cities News, Dallas. Cattle Baron’s Bail: excellent, great layout, artwork, photos, wonderful ads; grabs your attention. Makes you want to attend.
Best Use of Photography
1. Colleyville News &Times. Good use of a lot of photos. Color inking in layout is weak. Photos effective, strongly used.
2. Fort Worth Times-Record. Boat photo shows very good use of layout and content relations. Bluebonnet color photo confusing.
3. DeSoto Today. Good use of photos; inked good.
4. Duncanville Today. Layout a little too busy, but photos effective.
Column Writing
Judge’s note: This division and category was easily the hardest for me to judge. The majority of entries were outstanding. Basically, it came down to subjective judgment. Every one of these writers is a winner.
1. Wylie News, Jacque Hilburn: A writer after my own heart! Had me laughing out loud!
2. Deer Park Progress, Mary Ellen Wilson: What humor and what lessons! Not overly long, nor too short.
3. Nueces County Record-Star, Robstown, Chris Krueger: 10 years old! Keep going. Strong. I hope to read another one in a few years.
4. Colleyville News &Times, Bruce Rider: Good, clear, concise: appealing to me.
Editorial Column
1. Duncanville Today, subjects: school tax, council. Tax editorial is to the point, clear and develops quickly. Council explains the issue, then makes its point. Local or localized issues. Even as an outsider, I was still very interested.
2. Park Cities People, Dallas, subjects: teen arrests, education. Well-written, thoughtful editorials that developed well without being overwritten. Local interest was there.
3. Houston Business Journal, subjects: health care, NAFTA. Well-written, developed logically, of interest to readers. Health care could have made a better point than “keep a watch,” and it could have been given more local significance. NAFTA did both: made a point, had local interest.
4. Fort Worth Times-Record, subjects: federal bureaucracy, racial hatred. Hatred was thoughtful, well-written piece with local ties, although it ran on a bit. Bureaucracy developed well but needed some local peg lest it get lost in its own abyss.
Feature Story
1. DeSoto Today, subject: senior citizen. Good story about 97-year-old, but it does drop off a little toward end. Needed a good quote to close with instead of information on senior citizen center hours. Photos of him dancing, at ballgame, etc., would have made story stronger. Subject: adopting Russian child. Good story on Russian orphan, with photos that boosted it even more. Very nice writing style. This story clinched win.
2. Colleyville News &Times, subject Easter’s meaning. Good story showing “other” side of Easter instead of bunnies, eggs, etc., but not as strong as second story. Subject: woman aviator. Excellent! Very well-written story that few people know about. I read it eagerly, both for content and style.
3. Park Cities News, Dallas, subject: disabled students. Great story! Good photographs! Well-written, personal account of severely disabled child integrated into regular class. Story is sensitive and informative. Good opening and closing. Was close pick for 2nd. Subject sports announcer. Enjoyed story although it tended to drift in spots. Overall nice story about nice man. The one photo was obviously a studio portrait. Candid photo of him announcing game would have been nice touch.
4. Duncanville Today, subject: battling cancer. Inspirational story about cancer victim battling back. Starts out strong, but lags a little. Only one photo. Photos of his artwork would have been interesting. Subject: sisters in clothing business. Loved story! Great color photo, good use of quotations, well-paced.
News Writing
1. Park Cities People, Dallas. All stories well written. 4/15: Complete coverage of student’s arrest with side bars on all angles is insightful and projects problem of teenage drinking.
2. Cedar Hill Today. Personal touch given to tragedy or crime stories.
3. Houston Business Journal Fair balance of business features as well as investigative reports.
4. Suburban Tribune, Dallas. 2111: Unbiased reporting of explosive situation. Reporter interviewed and included all subjects’ comments. Editorial or personal opinion of editor on front page is risky, but differentiated from news copy.
Sports Coverage
1. Park Cities People, Dallas. Excellent. Color pictures great. Photography outstanding. Creative and interesting. Good column. Playoff brackets great.
2. Nueces County Record-Star, Robstown. Great feature pictures. I like graphics. Good picture of flying catch. Great coverage (Tae kwan do, too!) and headlines.
3. Duncanville Today. Good pictures. Sports calendar excellent. Stories well-written. Great grid-guessing.
4. Westlake Picayune, Austin. Nice tribute to team. Good coverage. Tabloid page makes for easier departmentalization. Excellent pictures.
Division 6 Weeklies more than 2,000
Advertising
1. Fredericksburg Standard Radio Post. Persuasive in point of sale throughout; attention given to detail even of smallest ad; advertising initiative impossible to ignore.
2. Azle News-Advertiser. Attention given to point of sale of each ad is powerful, impossible to ignore. Special attention to assist in purveying message. Hustle very evident.
3. Rockdale Reporter. Ads holier for attention; leave no guessing on part of reader, much attention given to design, art, type. Good effort.
4. Navasota Examiner. Great variety of ads, each carrying its message well; strong selection of type faces, clean, neat.
Best Use of Photography
1. Azle News-Advertiser. Pictures not bordered. Good news photos. Lot of photos.
2. Rockport Herald. Good product all around. Big pictures and plenty of them.
3. Fredericksburg Standard and Radio Post. Lots of photos. Good general quality but not bordered and unrelated photos not boxed. Lots of expressive faces in photos.
4. Clifton Record. Good photos. Plenty of faces.
Column Writing
1. Colorado County Citizen, Columbus, Sally Rogers, subject: life among heathens. Spunky, original and fresh. Shows passion and depth and individuality. Sally Rogers is a soul mate to Will Rogers and Woody Guthrie.
2. Burnet Bulletin, Sara Wartes, subject meteors and passage of time. Sara Wartes is a fine writer. She moves from the stars in the sky to the tadpoles in the creeks and captures all the wonder and pathos in between.
3. Lindale News, Janet Ragland, subject lessons from father. Clear, descriptive writing which hinges on real emotion. Janet Ragland writes straight, true and always settles quietly in deepest part of heart, that part which resonates most truthfully. Subject: little boys and mommies. One extended poem about little boy’s love and his mother’s perfect adoration.
4. Lindale News, Tom Boone, subject wife’s arrest. Frank treatment of an incident with the potential to do great damage to the writer, his family and his business.
Editorial Column
1. Daingerfield Bee, subject ambulance service. Super job of shedding light on issue. Concise yet complete. Readers will keep reading this paper.
2. Tulia Herald. Good, fresh slant on common problem most people take for granted.
3. Azle News-Advertiser, subject city council playing hardball: Factual, objective. Keep it up.
4. Zapata County News, subject friends killing kids. Good wake-em-up editorial.
Feature Story
1. Lindale News, subject miracle baby. Good Christmas tie-in. Timely. Baby’s fight for survival and parents’ optimism are touching and hold interest. Accompanying photos are rare and add interest, depth. Subject worst of worst. Insightful reporting. Contrast between visitors and inmates was striking. Descriptive detail, quotes from inmates hold interest, provide depth.
2. Copperas Cove Leader Press, subject officer’s different beat. Interesting topic, good background. Relevant, inspiring. Subject best little cat house. Cute photo.
3. Marble Falls, Highlander, subject sister locates long-lost family. Quotes and background on family add interest and depth. Subject staying alive. Touching. Good first-person advice and insight for others experiencing disease or symptoms. Upbeat lead, conclusion are inspiring.
4. Canton Herald, Linda Brown, subject gift of life. Amanda’s struggle and spirit worth reading. Subject: woman saves man from flood. Needs stronger final graph.
News Writing
1. Navasota Examiner. Hooray! The first “future” sports story of the day. A real smorgasbord of coverage.
2. Rockwall Chronicle. Readers must appreciate your jump package, packaging overall!
3. Colorado County Citizen, Columbus. Play-by-play sports is old news for a weekly. Good variety of stories. Packaging could be improved.
Sports Coverage
1. Pleasanton Express. 10/27: best-looking section I saw, considering ad stack. Very good layout. 11/7: Lots of results. Like having a local column.
2. Fredericksburg Standard Radio Post. 4/14: Nice coverage. Good variety, use of kickers. 3/17: Nice photo pages.
3. Cameron Herald. 1/11: Good use of breakouts, season results. “1st meeting” great space, good pictures. 4/22: Good use of averages and better photos.
4. Azle News/Advertiser. 4/8: Lots of results. Writing better than average. Great courage in submitting section in which columnist predicted Mets to win NL East!
Division 7 Weeklies 1,000 to 2,000
Advertising
1. Crosby County News & Chronicle. Valentine’s promotion is great!
2. Spearman Reporter-Statesman. Great Christmas gift guide with photos. All ad photos of exceptional quality.
3. Eagle-Press, Fritch. Good mix of art, borders; limited type fonts. Recipe edition is unique idea.
4. Groom News. Good illustration mix. Personal Christmas ads are unique.
Best Use of Photography
1. Pilot Point Post-Signal. Good page 1 shot of accident victim. Pictures generally show extra effort by photographers in composition and imagination. Excellent reproduction overall.
2. Dublin Citizen. Good job of covering hard news: auto accidents, fire. Sports coverage also good. Excellent color shot of veterans.
3. Springtown Epigraph. Volleyball, cross country double-truck should have been photo ID’d. Excellent color shot of bluebonnets.
4. Canadian Record. Good job on “working weekend” layout and rodeo. Fourth of July photos on page 1 need ID. Overall production first rate.
Column Writing
1. Springtown Epigraph, Charles Hodges, subject: crystal ball. Sharp. Subject: touchdown. Good points, well-expressed.
2. Big Lake Wildcat, David Werst, subject dancing. O.K. Subject rain. Nice piece.
3. Pilot Point Post-Signal, David Lewis, subject: sex education. Serious. Good point. Subject Ben Franklin. Different Good.
4. Canadian Record, Laurie Brown, subject: talk. Nice points. Subject:
Editorial Column
1. Canadian Record, subjects: income tax, strip search. Well-written, well-developed and insightful examination of local issues.
2. Pilot Point Post-Signal, subjects: sheriff’s fee, teen-age violence. Both were brief, set up well, local and to the point.
3. Eagle Press, Fritch, subjects: kindergarten, press freedom. Kindergarten uses logic to develop a point. Freedom is scattershot personal soapbox. Both are local.
4. Canyon Lake Times Guardian, subjects: vote, litter. Succinct, local. “Don’t vote if you don’t care” makes point, uses a twist. Litter could have used an editor.
Feature Story
1. Blanco County News, subjects: Rodney, owl. Rodney: what a nice story. Good work, Sheryl.
2. Dublin Citizen, subjects: communion gets Tex-Mex twist, armadillo. Karen, you have a nice touch. Either of these stories easily could have been overwritten.
3. Canadian Record, subjects: Persimmon Creek, winter of 92-93. Nice writing in a really attractive paper. Good photos and good use of photos.
4. Eagle Press, Fritch, subject Lake Meredith harbor, Jennifer Hamby.
News Writing
1. Springtown Epigraph, 4/8 and 12/16. Well-written articles with strong news content. Informative, chatty paper. Good overall job: news, sports, op-ed.
2. Palacios Beacon, 4/21 and 2/17. Good lead at changes in city operations that infrastructure committee recommended in 2/17 story. News writing overall is straight forward. News content informative.
3. Pilot Point Post-Signal, 12/2 and 6/17. Strong news content on fronts. Writing clean, to the point. Community news nicely done. Good lead on Cats Rally, page 6, 12/2.
4. Friona Star, 4/24 and 9/4. Strong community news. Straight forward news writing. Like the way paper zeroes in on what it means to reader, i.e., 3rd graph, 4/24: “Rural fire ratio ...“ Strong g at “the problem is in the fact ...” That kind of writing tells the reader why he should be reading the story.
Sports Coverage
1. Pilot Point Post-Signal. 12/9: page 1 innovative ad mix with sports. Story content really good. 11/5, page 1, variety. This was a pearl sports section. Lots of variety in stories and lots of them. Presentation (layout) could be better, but overall, this was the best section.
2. Palacios Beacon. Both issues had page 1 photos. Excellent layout, but lacked a variety of sporting news. Creative use of screens and reverses. But not quite enough sporting news or events.
3. Springtown Epigraph. 4/8 page 1 story: layout attractive. High story count. Junior high coverage. 10/7: good column. Photo reproduction poor.
4. Spearman Reporter-Statesman. 4/15: Tennis, page 1 with story and track roundup and Special Olympics, golf, and column. Good paper. Bob is a busy dude.
Division 8 Weeklies less than 1,000
Advertising
1. Idalou Beacon. Use of features on page 1, plus a lot of good news on inside pages where ads are. Good! All I Want for Christmas is excellent. Good ad congratulating the Wildcats season. Security Bank ads are good.
2. Hart Beat. Bank saluting Tony Leibel and Meet the Lndyhorns and Longhorns, are neat ads. Deaf Smith Electric is creative. Bet it came from publishers’ idea exchange. Good! Great layout for Hart of Plains Pump and Irrigation. Interesting headings for City of Hart ad Lawyer ad is good. Nice ad for Honored Pioneers from Thriftway Super Market Somebody on staff does excellent job on ad layout, design and ideas. Very creative!
3. Miami Chief. Venture Foods has interesting layout. Like livestock show and sale ad. Knight’s Greenhouse is good. Don’t like burying ads (pages 9, 29). Bob Clements and Les Small ads should be on top! Sig for Dent Dudes is confusing. It took me several minutes to figure out it was all one ad. At first glance sig looks like clothing store ad. Perhaps if I lived there and was familiar with local business confusion would vanish. Glad to see you did not (enter) your Christmas greetings edition. They mostly all look the same.
4. Golden Spread, Follett. Your gray screens, borders are outstanding. I appreciate round corners, dotted lines, double lines with screen and other effects. Ted’s Photo Center nice ad. Hair Fantastic has interesting effect. Follett Food sure gets a lot for their money! Cemetery Caretaker. I don’t think I have ever see as much display for a legal-type ad. L&W Auction looks interesting.
Best Use of Photography
1. FlowerPlex Pipeline, Flower Mound. Clear and sharp photos gave realistic view.
2. Wimberly View. Big Boots to fill photo was strong on front page. All photos had good impact
3. White Oak Independent. Good, strong photos. Clear, sharp, impactive.
4. Burnet Citizens Gazette. Good sports photos and photos throughout paper.
Column Writing
1. Burnet Citizens Gazette, Rick Espitia, subjects: Father’s Day, checkbooks. Writer shows nice ear for language in columns. He’s deft at mixing humor and poignance. Columns a treat to read.
2. Brackett News, Brackettville, Mike Moncus, subjects: owls, darkness. Good columns should tell story, and Moncus satisfies with quickness, skill. I liked images sentences paint This is one column I’d look for each week.
3. Brackett News, Brackettville, Curt Brummet, subjects: club meetings, childhood parachutes. Writer spins funny anecdotes in charming, self-deprecating style. Some language a little too self-consciously folksy. Writer sometimes raises country rhetoric to point of affectation, but he’s worth reading for tales he tells.
4. Miami Chief, Valda Traughber, subjects: cold weather, spring. Column on cold weather/intrigues of long underwear got this award. Spring column wasn’t as much of a standout because it bogged down in broad philosophizing. Personal columns work best when they stick to personal anecdotes, as in cold weather.
Editorial Column
1. Kerens Tribune, subjects: sight of blood, that time. Good job of bringing reader into current issue as objectively as writer did. Easy-to-follow and understand even if you’re not from there. Writer is an asset to newspaper and community. It’s That Time: Missed headline here but copy made up for it. Shows keen insight from newspaper’s and reader’s perspective, and politicians as newspaper readers. Good job.
2. Miami Chief, subject: Santa knows better. Good observation. A must-read. Well-written and planned.
3. Burnet Citizens Gazette, subject: budget process. Good job of explaining issue objectively. Well-written. Easy for layman to understand.
Feature Story
1. Burnet Citizens Gazette, subject: leaping lizards. Most unusual topic. Great for feature. Imaginative. Subject: water wars. Well-written but not feature material.
2. Wimberly View, subject reunion. Story probably would have been a first place winner with a more gripping lead. “My name is ... and I have a reason to believe you may be my father!” What a call! Why bury it under your “setting the scene” lead? Subject Josie. A charming story, but again, you put too much background at beginning.
3. Idalou Beacon, subject Margaret Wilkerson. Good lead, human interest, but why not start off with a couple of outstanding and memorable stories? Subject: self esteem. Good, but again, weak lead.
4. FlowerPlex Pipeline, Flower Mound, subject females on fireline. Good lead and writing, just too personal from writer’s viewpoint Who is “I” in second column? No one is credited with a quote, but there are two bylines. Rather confusing.
News Writing
1. White Oak Independent. Well done page 1 layouts. Good to see bylines on page 1. Mostly strong leads. Watch redundancies. Evening is p.m. “City of” White Oak. Don’t use “over” for “more than.” Good adherence to AP style. Write time: hour, then day, then date. Don’t split verbs. Jeff: don’t overdose on the use of the dash. Club enjoyed its, not their.
2. Abernathy Weekly Review. Good page 1 news value. Be consistent in use of page 1 bylines. Use them on all major stories. One sample had them; other had just one. Don’t use “recent” - be specific. Some weak leads. “Capitol building” is redundant See capitol, capital in AP Stylebook. “Is now” is redundant in reporting time, first give hour, then day, then date. Quotes go outside periods and commas. Don’t split verbs. “All” is almost never needed. AP style: Don’t follow an organization’s name with its abbreviation in parentheses. Use abbreviation in second reference. “Over” is spatial. Don’t substitute it for “more than.” Scott: in references to Abernathy, use “its,” not “their.” Also, vice president takes no hyphen.
3. Wimberly View. Nice use of color. Follow AP style: Use the Rev. Fletcher Pool; use no 00 on time or money. Weak punctuation. Comma before and/or in series. Good to see bylines on page 1. Don’t use vague terms: very, promptly, really. Keep opinions Out of news. “Crucial” is a judgment call. Time: hour, then day, then date. 12 noon is redundant. Noon is correct. Fund-raiser, not fundraiser. Don’t put nd and st on dates.
4. Miami Chief. Nice layout on buzzard story. Avoid the use of “recently.” The city of Miami is redundant; so is 12 noon. Use bylines on major stories, especially on page 1. Adviser, not advisor. Follow AP style. How quick is quickly? Don’t split verbs. Re-lection, because of two e’s. Headline needs to cover all columns of its story’s copy. Don’t use a personal pronoun before a degree.
Sports Coverage
1. White Oak Independent. Head and shoulders above other entries. By far the best effort of small papers. Probably as good or better than larger divisions. White Oak sports fans are well-served by George Whitley.
2. Kerens Tribune. Good effort on sports for small paper. Distinctive page logos would dress up your sports pages.
3. Golden Spread, Follett. Page 1 photo spread on district track meet has no mention of where to look inside for story. Suggest need for some type of distinctive sports page logo. Good coverage of basketball games.
4. Petersburg Post. Thorough coverage, but should make effort to better departmentalize sports stories onto several distinct pages.
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