1990 Better Newspaper Contest — Dailies & Semiweeklies
Texas Press Association
Division 2 Dailies Less Than 8,000
Division 3 Semiweeklies 4,000 or More
Division 4 Semiweeklies Less Than 4,000
Division 1 Dailies 8,000 to 150,000
GENERAL EXCELLENCE
1st-BEAUMONT ENTERPRISE. Solid reporting, excellent photography, pleasing layout, to-the-point headlines and good story selection. The best-of-the-best.
2nd-GALVESTON DAILY NEWS. Excellent newspaper in spite of unfortunate policy of page 1 and Section lead advertising. Reporting, editing and photography strongest. Sports a plus, too.
3rd-ODESSA AMERICAN. Color photography, news, sports and other features give this newspaper strong appeal. This may be Texas’ most “reader friendly” newspaper. Layout and design people at this paper are artists. Strong writing and reporting, too.
4th-PLAINVIEW DAILY HERALD. Stories on ostrich ranching, herbal wars and solid community reporting off-set shameless self-promotion of advertising sections on page 1. Excellent community journalism. As Danny Andrews would say...“this dog will hunt.”
If there were an honorable mention, it should go to the Midland Reporter-Telegram for excellent news packaging.
COLUMNS
1st-SHERMAN ‘DEMOCRAT. Don Eldredge doesn’t write for everybody, but he does a nice job of bringing his age group into focus. Refreshing style!
2nd-TEXAS CITY SUN. Max Rizley Jr. has enough imagination to help enliven the hassle of daily column writing. He was close to being this year’s best.
3rd-BAYTOWN SUN. Jim Kyle probably could make an interesting column out of a common utility pole. A fertile mind!
4th-PLAINVIEW DAILY HERALD. Philip L. Hamilton is young man with a bright future in column writing. Only a little separates fourth from first.
EDITORIALS
lst-KERRVILLE DAILY TIMES. Mattox campaign contribution editorial was excellent. Sharp, hard-hitting. Free-wheeling style and colorful writing made it a pleasure to read. Complete absence of editorial “we” lends strength to statements.
2nd-SHERMAN DEMOCRAT.Editorial on ower’s “pledge” was exceptional. Showed clear understanding of subject matter and the shallowness of Tower’s commitment. “Local” editorial on deaths in community was different, but reflected paper’s conscience and community awareness.
3rd-GALVESTON DAILY NEWS.Good selection of topics. Obviously well researched. Clear statement of purpose. Too much editorial “we” tends to weaken statements and conclusions. Better to make statements as “fact,” not what “we think.”
4th-ODESSA AMERICAN. Good use of local topics. Positions well documented and move to logical conclusions.
FEATURES
1st-BEAUMONT ENTERPRISE. “Family Tragedy” by Julie Bonnin. Bonnin’s account is thorough, compelling and well written. The best of the rest, by far.
2nd-McKINNEY COURIER-GAZETTE. “I live through hell every day” by Dianne M. Johnston. Newsy, haunting, this story hits home for parents and anyone really who cares about people. Johnston’s well written account points up the difficulties of this strange case and a mother’s anguish with the lack of results. “Living In Fear”: Similar stories crop up daily in papers all over the country, but Johnston’s account, especially the strong quotes, made it a cut above the rest. Good work.
3rd-MIDLAND REPORTER-TELEGRAM. “Power on the Rise” by Chris Van Wagenen. Van Wagenen’s strength here is the timely topic and the thorough presentation of an issue that’s vitally important to Texas and other border states where the Hispanic population is growing yearly. Better writing might have won it the top prize in this category.
4th-PLAINVIEW DAILY HERALD. “Drugs claim athlete’s career” by Kevin Lewis. Good quotes make this story stand above many on the same subject. Lewis avoids setting a sympathetic tone for ex-athlete Sam Willis.
PHOTOGRAPHY
1st-LAREDO MORNING TIMES. The fire fighter photo is outstanding. Powerful moment. Great effort by photographer to get the story telling photo. This photo needed to be played much larger (maybe 6 col.). I felt cheated because it ran so small. Rural reality main photo is also excellent. Good job!
2nd-BEAUMONT ENTERPRISE. Photo coverage of drowned boys was excellent. Good emotion. Flood coverage was very good also. Nice job on tornado coverage. Shows the staff was on their toes.
3rd-MIDLAND REPORTER-TELEGRAM. Sports photos are great. Good use of art. Nice portraits and nice illustrations. Where are the news photos?
4th-ODESSA AMERICAN. Your senior status special report was good. The best photo was played on the back of the section, though. Once again — where are the news pictures?
NEWS WRITING
1st-GALVESTON DAILY NEWS. Top four in this category all close but Galveston’s crisp writing, punch leads and news play gives it the edge. Class news product. Excellent reporting.
2nd-BEAUMONT ENTERPRISE. If Galveston is first, who’s on second? The Enterprise gets the nod over Odessa, just barely. Professional treatment of major news events in issues submitted gave this paper the edge. Good job, excellent writing and reporting.
3rd-ODESSA AMERICAN. Impressive reporting effort. Top three in this category all in the same league. News writing skills are a strong suit of reporters at this newspaper. Reporting skills also abound. Another good Texas-sized effort.
4th-DENTON RECORD-CHRONICLE. Lengthy leads are the only shortcoming of the newswriting effort here. Strong reporting skills, well-written lifestyles and sports stories and solid reporting of quotes and facts puts this staff’s efforts in the money. Again, entry selection helped edge other strong entries in this category.
ADVERTISING
1st-TEXAS CITY SUN. Good in house ads, lots of excellent color.
2nd-PARIS NEWS. Lots of easy to read, in-house ads. Particularly like the bubble gum machine ad.
3rd-MARSHALL NEWS MESSENGER. Variety of in house generated ads.
4th-KERRVILLE DAILY TIMES. Nice variety. Several classy looking in house ads!
SPORTS COVERAGE
1st-ODESSA AMERICAN. The clear winner. Strong writing and content. Effective design and photography.
2nd-GALVESTON DAILY NEWS. Good photo illustrations on “The rivalry.” “Football Foresight” a nice touch. Good content, design.
3rd-DENTON RECORD-CHRONICLE. Nice story play, photography. Roundups a bit too brief.
4th-LAREDO MORNING TIMES. Fourth by a whisker. Good local content. Poor color reproduction. Headlines a bit muddled.
Division 2 Dailies Less Than 8,000
GENERAL EXCELLENCE
1st-ROSENBERG HERALD COASTER. All local front pages, excellent photography, good color reproduction and well-written stories make this newspaper the class of the category.
2nd-PASADENA DAILY CITIZEN. Good news effort, pleasing layout of well written stories and strong news photography. Local news content strong throughout. Local business and entertainment stories a big plus. Only drawback is short newshole for sports in a newspaper of this size.
3rd-HUNTSVILLE ITEM. Nice page one except for advertising on bottom of page which detracts from otherwise excellent news product. Features add strength, as do color photographs and expert use of graphics and spot color. Good writers work here. Sports a plus, too. This paper a close third, but those ads.
4th-CLEAR LAKE DAILY CITIZEN. This paper just ahead of at least three others which deserve mention in a strong category. Photography and newswriting set this one aside. Pleasing layout and headline writing pluses, too. This is an excellent news product.
COLUMNS
1st-SNYDER DAILY NEWS. Bill McClellan’s column starts off slow, but works up to a very interesting piece about Uncle Quirt. The only humor column that made me laugh.
2nd-PASADENA DAILY CITIZEN. Gina Augustini’s column a touching look at an old family friend, without being overly sentimental. Excellent walk-off.
3rd-PECOS ENTERPRISE. It’s obvious Chuck Sutlive truly cares about his subject, and speaks with strong conviction without preaching.
4th-WAXAHACHIIE DAILY LIGHT. Nothing fancy, just a solid, straight-ahead piece about hunting safety by Jim Morgan.
EDITORIALS
1st-TAYLOR DAILY PRESS. Strong, assertive style and clear statement of purpose. Recommends a course of action and supports its recommendations with logic. Chooses topics of obvious local interest. Didn’t like use of screen and bold type, however.
2nd-SAN MARCOS DAILY RECORD. Style is colorful and concise. Brevity invites better readership. Clear statement of purpose. Reaches conclusions. Minimal use of editorial “well is a plus.
3rd-HEREFORD BRAND. Bright, lively style. Reaches clear conclusions. Makes solutions available. Would do better to make positive statements without “we believe” or “we think.”
4th-WAXAHACHIE DAILY LIGHT. Crisp, clean style. States purpose early and moves to logical conclusion. Too much “we hope,” “we suggest.” Making more positive statements without the “we” would make writing more forceful.
FEATURES
1st-HEREFORD BRAND. Kay Peck has good storytelling technique; good use of quotes. Lead is weak though. Story much too long.
2nd-BAY CITY DAILY TRIBUNE. Nice package by Robert Lucey, but story didn’t impact me as a reader as much as it might have.
3rd-PASADENA DAILY CITIZEN. Nice lead by Gina Augustini. Good quotes. About the right length.
4th-PECOS ENTERPRISE. Excellent lead by Chuck Sutlive, but story quickly turned from feature to news story.
PHOTOGRAPHY
1st-ROSENBERG HERALD COASTER. The spot news photo was a nice moment.
2nd-SNYDER DAILY NEWS. Nice reaction from football game. Good effort from photographer to get something more than action.
3rd-BAY CITY DAILY TRIBUNE. Very nice moment from Tidehaven game tells the complete story. I could feel the tension. Good job on pic page from the game also.
4th-PASADENA DAILY CITIZEN. Photo coverage of Phillips Petroleum Plastics Plant was outstanding. The photo staff covered the explosion and aftermath in a way that told me the whole story. Great job, great use of photos.
NEWS WRITING
1st-PASADENA DAILY CITIZEN. Good news package. High local content and well written. Readers certainly get their money’s worth. Excellent effort.
2nd-ROSENBERG HERALD COASTER. A close second. Strong writing. Use of color, photography and layout strengthens already appealing news effort. Fort Bend readers should appreciate this newspaper.
3rd-CLEAR LAKE DAILY CITIZEN. Excellent story selection. Reporters must have studied under Red Gibson at UT; they write tight leads. One of the better small newspapers. Good work.
4th-BAY CITY DAILY TRIBUNE. Distant fourth, but better than the rest. Good example of excellent job by a small news staff. Tracy Gumpton deserves a raise.
ADVERTISING
1st-CLEAR LAKE DAILY CITIZEN. The 20th Anniversary Lunar Landing tab is informative, educational, great layout, front cover pleasing to the eyes.
2nd-BAY CITY DAILY TRIBUNE. The special supplement displays good layout, clean ads, nice job!
3rd-SEGUIN GAZETTE-ENTERPRISE. Layout good, easy to read ads.
4th-SAN MARC OS DAILY RECORD. Liked Radical Wave ad especially, caught my eye. Good layout.
SPORTS COVERAGE
1st-PASADENA DAILY CITIZEN. Good content; many strong leads. I like “Voice of the Fan.” Clean look; nice use of mugs and quotes.
2nd-ROSENBERG HERALD COASTER. Might have placed higher, but an entry preparation rule was not followed. Good writing, nice photos, clean look.
3rd-ATHENS DAILY REVIEW. Good outdoors column. Photos used well.
4th-PECOS ENTERPRISE. Good local content, packaged well.
Division 3 Semiweeklies 4,000 or More
GENERAL EXCELLENCE
1st-PANOLA COUNTY POST, CARTHAGE. Best front page in the category. Use of graphics on natural gas story enlivened an otherwise dull story. Good use of photos throughout. Liked the way the editorial was displayed even if I totally disagreed with it! As for the strip ad on the front page — tacky, tacky, tacky.
2nd-ATLANTA CITIZENS JOURNAL. Clean front page layout but screened box over story was too dark, making story bard to read. Solid publication.
3rd-GRAHAM LEADER. Great storm coverage.
4th-ROUND ROCK LEADER. Good storm coverage, nice feature pages.
COLUMNS
1st-UVALDE LEADER-NEWS. Margaret Rambie can take something personal or something totally unrelated to her and convert it into riveting or emotional material that deserves and elicits re-reading.
2nd-WILLIAMSON COUNTY SUN, GEORGETOWN. Brad Stutzman is a most readable columnist who holds audience’s attention. He can relate personal items without making us feel he has been overwhelmed by his own importance.
3rd-PANOLA WATCHMAN, CARTHAGE. Dorothy Neville’s use of wealth of knowledge and years of experience to create insightful, intelligent columns. She doesn’t rely on humor for readability.
4th-ATLANTA CITIZENS JOURNAL. John Coleman has good use of humor. He has adapted well to current style of short, forceful sentence fragments.
EDITORIALS
1st-HOOD COUNTY NEWS, GRANBURY. The News is right - a School Board meeting behind locked gates at the Country Club for “executive” session stinks. Stay on their heels — they need it. Concise, well-written editorial.
2nd-BOWIE NEWS. Good editorial insisting on Bowie Citizens’ free access to information. With the bunch at City Hall, the newspaper has its work cut out. The city manager needs an extensive course on open records & open meetings. Bowie News is fighting a tough battle. Good luck!
3rd-ROUND ROCK LEADER. “City Betrayal” has very interesting point. Why, indeed, are the city fathers sending money Out of town? Taxpayers of Round Rock should be very upset. Good writing.
4th-KINGSVILLE RECORD. “Time to hire a Police Chief” is brief and well thought out. A column with few words but a big message.
FEATURES
1st-GEORGETOWN SUNDAY SUN. A beautiful story of a young girl’s struggle for survival and all the people she touched. Well put together.
2nd-EL CAMPO LEADER-NEWS. Touching story, filled with just the right amount of emotion. Fine writing.
3rd-ROUND ROCK LEADER. Wry good writing, but may have been better to concentrate more on the last chance forever, less on the bird.
4th-HOOD COUNTY NEWS, GRANBURY. Nice work, gave some insight into an artist, which is never easy.
PHOTOGRAPHY
1st-GEORGETOWN SUNDAY SUN. Your tornado coverage was excellent. Good job to get photos to tell the complete story. The front page photo is very compelling and emotional. Great job on picture page. You use photos well. Nice feature pic, and nice fashion page.
2nd-ROUND ROCK LEADER. Tornado coverage is good. I really like your feature pages. The photo staff looks for the good shot. Pictures are played very well. Nice Easter feature photo of dad and daughter.
3rd-POLK COUNTY ENTERPRISE, LIVINGSTON. Very good job on football photos. They told the story.
4th-WISE COUNTY MESSENGER, DECATUR. Fire photos are good. They have lots of action in them. Good job.
NEWS WRITING
1st-GEORGETOWN SUNDAY SUN. Good product. Newsy newspaper riding the skills of a team of excellent writers. Absolutely the best of the bunch.
2nd-ATLANTA CITIZENS JOURNAL. Well written and reported community newspaper. Writers know how to write leads. This is what news writing is all about. Congrats to editors and staff for solid focus of newspaper’s mission.
3rd-EL CAMPO LEADER-NEWS. Good news writing and reporting skills obvious.
4th-HOOD COUNTY NEWS, GRANBURY. Leads get reader’s attention. Bold-face quotes okay but overdone. Good news product. Writing and reporting excellent.
ADVERTISING
1st-ATLANTA CITIZENS JOURNAL. Good clean ad layout - easy on eye! Very nice Business Service Directory. Season’s Greetings section —loved the ads!
2nd-WISE COUNTY MESSENGER, DECATUR. Good ad layout, use of pics in ads great. Karl Klement ad especially good for a car dealer ship (Oct. 19th issue)!
3rd-MABANK MONITOR. Liked the Business Spotlight pages ads especially.
Nice job.
4th-ROUND ROCK LEADER. Great Church page. Ad copy in general straight.
SPORTS COVERAGE
1st-PANOLA COUNTY POST/WATCHMAN, CARTHAGE. Best section by far. Good use of info boxes and logos. Good photography. Strong content. Was as good as several of the entries in Division 2.
2nd-ROUND ROCK LEADER. A clear second. Solid content and headlines.
3rd-GRAHAM LEADER. A close call between third and fourth. Football preview section, with “The Ptsse” gives Graham the nod.
4th-WILLIAMSON COUNTY SUN, GEORGETOWN. Strong photo on Georgetown-Waco story.
Division 4 Semiweeklies Less Than 4,000
GENERAL EXCELLENCE
1st-COPPERAS COVE LEADER PRESS. Beautiful front page pictures and layout. Clear, dark type. Just enough color and lines. Negatively, advertising tends to override, overwhelm news content inside A section. Inside section front pages also good.
2nd-BROWNFIELD NEWS. Beautiful front pages. Large pictures. Clear type. Needs better action sports photos, these detract.
3rd-LAMPASAS DISPATCH RECORD.Good photos. Special sections most clear, graphic, well written. Some inside type is blurred.
4th-BRADY STANDARD-HERALD. This shows that a paper does not need to be big to be attractive and readable. It’s clarity jumps Out at the reader.
COLUMNS
1st-COMMERCE JOURNAL.Many Texas columnists seemingly have forgotten what column writing is about. Kevin McPherson has not. His columns are relative to Life in general and reveal a compassion we can join up with.
2nd-ANDREWS COUNTY NEWS, ANDREWS. James Roberts has a healthy handle on what’s right and what’s wrong. Fulfillment is the name of his style.
3rd-COPPERAS COVE LEADER PRESS. Janine Ehlinger has a realistic grasp on life. Her column on the Killeen taxi driver murders was a real attention-getter. A strong third place probably deserves better.
4th-CANYON NEWS. Kimberly Burk took a delicate subject — AIDS — and made something warm Out of it.
EDITORIALS
1st-BALLINGER LEDGER. Two good advocacy editorials. Both review a problem and offer a solution. We would suggest, though, that maybe the “doers” are lacking because the newspaper has failed to excite them.
2nd-PERRYTON HERALD.Takes guts to call names, especially a justice of the peace. Good watch dog effort. Railroad editorial points to a problem, but doesn’t offer a solution. Kind of pointless hand wringing.
3rd-KERRVILLE MOUNTAIN SUN. Good topics. Maybe should have bit them harder. Recycling editorial would have been perfect for a picture of a landfill or waste along a road.
4th-COMMERCE JOURNAL. Good informative pieces. Both make you think, and that’s the whole purpose.
FEATURES
1st-BRADY STANDARD-HERALD. The story about the gas station in Melvin and its 88-year-old operator was clearly the best in the category. It really drew me in as a reader.
2nd-BALLINGER LEDGER. Goodlead. Use of excepts from a bike rider’s journal was a nice addition.
3rd-CANYON NEWS. Two good entries. The story on the retiring deputy sheriff was particularly well done.
4th-COPPERAS COVE LEADER PRESS. Story on cancer patient really got to me. I guess I’m just squeamish. Why the Crime Stoppers insert on the Miss Jewell story? I guess Crime Stoppers could have generated leads in finding her attacker, but this is never explained.
PHOTOGRAPHY
1st-COPPERAS COVE LEADER PRESS. Good news photos of fire on the front page. Overall print quality was excellent through both issues.
2nd-KERRVILLE MOUNTAIN SUN. Overall picture quality was good, the prints on the paddlefish story were excellent. Sports pictures were well done, however, the football pictures in the October issue tended to be a little muddy.
3rd-LAMPASAS DISPATCH RECORD. Overall quality was good, the sports pictures were excellent and the eagle feature was very nice also.
4th-BRADY STANDARD-HERALD. Good coverage of the track opening and tornado, but I thought the quality of the sports pictures were a little weak.
NEWS WRITING
1st-COPPERAS COVE LEADER PRESS. Good coverage of community as a whole. Concise writing, with excellent use of quotes. Impressive detail. Reader doesn’t have to work hard to get meat of story.
2nd-QUANAH TRIBUNE-CHIEF. Solid news coverage. Writing could be a tad crisper, but lack of crackle is not a serious flaw in a paper that tells what is going on as this one does.
3rd-COMMERCE JOURNAL. No comment.
4th-PEARLAND JOURNAL. No comment.
ADVERTISING
1st-PEARLAND JOURNAL. Severaltop quality ads; consistent. Color for Autoland made this one the winner.
2nd-ROCKWALL JOURNAL SUCCESS. You use screens in ads with good effect.
3rd-FRIENDSWOOD JOURNAL. You have excellent taste for what typestyle fits what kind of ad.
4th-COMMERCE JOURNAL. Christmas Gift Guide ads show lots of imagination and talent. Other ads are attractive with lots of white space.
SPORTS COVERAGE
1st-BRECKENRIDGE AMERICAN. Sports coverage is obviously a priority with this paper. Big section includes wide variety of sports with abundant pictures. Even weather picture compares hail to baseball.
2nd-ROCKWALL JOURNAL SUCCESS. Sports section is clearly labeled. Layout is clean in good block style with strong headlines and adequate art. Sports in the community are well covered.
3rd-BROWNFIELD NEWS. Copy andlayout strong and clean. Good, hard hitting headlines. Section hurt by insertion of non-related news and fillers in the middle of snorts.
4th-CANYON NEWS. Strength of the section is listing of scores and standings for variety of leagues, sports. Weaknesses include bleeding into ads and an arts/entertainment page stuck in
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