1994 Better Newspaper Contest — Dailies & Semiweeklies
Texas Press Association
Division 2 Dailies Less Than 10,000
Division 3 Semiweeklies 4,000 or More
Division 4 Semiweeklies Less Than 4,000
Division 1 Dailies More Than 10,000
Advertising
1. Brazosport Facts, Clute. Good layouts, design ideas on many industrial ads. Good efforts, initiative on multi-advertiser ads and pages. Lake Jackson 50th anniversary section had a lot of plus-business ads that showed initiative and originality. Variety of layouts excellent. Use of type styles and illustrations for ad design and layout well on many ads. Large number of nice layouts with good use of white space and lack of clutter. Made ads easy to identify, easy to read and pop off page. Consistent 8’s and 9’s on 1 to 10 scale.
2. Midland Reporter-Telegram. Auto layouts, especially in tab, were good, uncluttered and good use of illustrations — rare in automotive ads. Many good retail ad layouts. Overuse of color in Alidredge Garden ad: Color changes in the type lead to reading difficulty and layout/ design clutter. House ad on Keep Midland Beautiful a nice layout/design. Good use of process color in industrial ads, however, several had weak layouts: Color was not designed around color photo, color photo was just placed in ads: Consistent good ranking inoriginality, initiative, general appearance of each ad, layout variety, type and illustrations. 7’s and 8’s on a scale of 10.
3. Odessa American. Too many ads that are reverses and that used reverses. Several good multi-advertiser pages. Creative ad layouts and designs, including Midland Community Theater, KCRS radio. Color on business spotlight would have been better yellow than green, but good multi-advertiser idea for plus revenue. Rated high on general appearance of each ad.
4. Galveston County Daily News. Too many ads had excessive copy, not enough white space around ad. Layout and design pleasing and easy to browse through on the Galvez Mall multi-advertiser pages. Eye-catching illustrations: Rene’s Tackle Shop, Casablanca Boutique. Family memorial ads a nice touch. Galveston United Way excellent layout and design. Overall type and illustration use rated low, but there were several outstanding exceptions, as noted.
Best Use of Photography
1. Galveston County Daily News. Front pages well thought out with dramatic, emotional picture played dominantly, and other pictures played small enough not to detract from main picture. Strong news content
2. Odessa American. Good front-page pictures; dramatic and well-executed. Good design allows three pictures on page. Suffers from too many posed pictures.
3. Midland Reporter-Telegram. Good spot-news pictures of windstorm. Lots of color on fronts, but not much content. Good metro fronts, with pictures packaged together.
4. Beaumont Enterprise. Strong spot-news pictures, packaged together on page 1 to tell news story in dramatic way. Metro page pictures are poor quality and played too small.
Column Writing
1. Galveston County Daily News, Wanda Cash, subjects: Joaquin, toughest honor. Cash’s skill lies in her ability to write with control, regardless of topic. Toughest honor is a powerful piece of writing. Joaquin not nearly so strong a piece, especially for contest entry. Still, I found myself wondering if family had gotten any donations as a result of column.
2. Brazosport Facts, Clute, Dee Mcllhenny, subjects: Grand Saline, out of the dark. Nice, controlled style. Voice of reason. I’d be happy to have Mcllhenny writing in my paper.
3. Midland Reporter-Telegram, Gary Ott, subjects: summer vacation, porch. Vacation column weak; Porch column excellent.
4. Paris News, Stevie Langston, subjects: Mother, real world. Nice columns. You had a good recovery. I trust.
Editorial Column
1. Galveston County Daily News, subject: school prayer. Strong, knowledgeable. Subject: building permits. Good point. Important topic.
2. Marshall News Messenger, subject crime. Good points. Subject. KISD. O.K.
3. Midland Reporter-Telegram, subject: assault crime trial. O.K. Position well taken. Subject cluster system. O.K. Point is made. Little passion.
4. Beaumont Enterprise, subject: Marshall. Good point, not well explained. Subject jury selection. O.K.
Feature Story
1. Beaumont Enterprise, subjects twin works, justice provides. Sonja Garza had the only story that began with a real feature story hook. Her subject was a good one. Barrenson’s hook was good, but she should have continued from there and gone into her background later in the story.
2. Marshall News Messenger, subject dream come true. Great story. Third graph would have been better as a lead. Shelly Jones comes across with good writing and background. I see Wallin’s story more as a news story.
3. Brazosport Facts, Clute, subject: labor of love. Great story, but a little too long on facts and not enough depth to emotions. Lead could have been stronger. Although judging was not on photos, they’re also great. Hope you entered them in a photo category. Dodson’s story good but too cut and dried. I didn’t get a sense of the person at all.
4. Midland Reporter-Telegram, subject: living after loss. What a story! Probably would have been a 1st or 2nd if it had had a stronger lead!
News Writing
1. Beaumont Enterprise. Excellent story on Deputy Smith sentence. Writer did a great job of explaining the story so an outsider could understand. Also strong work on Vidor package. It is well-written and complete. Writer also provides context for outsiders. Stories generally well-written throughout.
2. Galveston County Daily News. Good story on girl who helped her neighbors. It needed to be a bit tighter, but still good. The reason for delay in lead story on Wal-Mart is too far down in story. Excellent job on gas explosion. Writer told me what happened and how many hurt. Coverage excellent. Good to see devotion to big local story.
3. Odessa American. Closing of Apple dealership seems overplayed. Column (Nax) on lB was well-written, even if it was slightly overdone. Good story about evacuation of students. Good photos and map. Good to see space on front devoted to local news. Story about bank robbery on lA, however, convicts Mr. Allen without benefit of trial. Writers and editors should watch this one.
4. Paris News. Package on killing spree in Hugo was a good one. Shenie Langston hustled. She got good detail and used lots of people. Good job! In general, stories strong about little girl killed by school bus.
Sports Coverage
1. Galveston County Daily News. High Fives. Excellent local youth coverage, color, design and graphics. Outstanding photos. Easily the class in this division.
2. Midland Reporter-Telegram. Same page 1 design. Strong local coverage in 11/14 issue. Excellent overall coverage and balance. Inside pages are pretty gray.
3. Odessa American. Excellent page 1 design and graphics. Excellent photos. Weak inside pages: They are cluttered. Editorial page in middle of sports section? Photos, graphics strongest parts of section. Good writing, strong leads.
4. Beaumont Enterprise. Strong local coverage. Page 1 design good, but drops off on your inside pages. Overall balance of coverage a little weak. Well-written stories.
Division 2 dailies less than 10,000
Advertising
1. Hereford Brand. Excellent ads, use of space, illustrations, variety of layouts; originality is terrific. Ads for scoreboard page very original. Ad layout great. They don’t bury ads.
2. Texas City Sun. Good use of small space, lots of information, clean. Excellent use of color.
3. Pecos Enterprise. Ad for Bad Company Rodeo is beautiful. Great color, very original. West of Pecos Rodeo section creative ads. Excellent illustrations. Interesting page layout. No buried ads.
4. Sweetwater Reporter. Ads clean, legible, attention-getting. Borders on Christmas ads great because they do not dominate ad. Layouts on ads are excellent!
Best Use of Photography
1. Texas City Sun. 12/19: A lot of photos in paper! Excellent coverage of sports events. Belize section well done, almost overdone, but nice work by staff photographer. 1117: good photo content again. Though many photos remain static, Andrews moves hard to make photos interesting. This is evident in the non-assigned shots, like the 11A photo, for example. In general, good work.
2. Waxahachie Daily Light. 12/5: Good sports photos, use of captions, visual content. Cheerleader on 7A is good contrast with on field shots. News photos are static with exception of 11A photo which is pretty nice. But who are these people? 10131: One Weekend an excellent idea. Good collection of interesting photos that really stand on their own. There were all sorts of ways to present this, and this was a nice job.
3. Stephenville Empire-Tribune. 12/19: Good use of photographs that are lively and interesting. Top lA photo is cropped a bit tightly for me. Beyond sports, where lively shots are pretty easy, news photos quickly go static. Two photos of woman with bears are too similar. In general, good photo coverage for a big-deal local event. 8/ 25: With significant exception of front page photos, news photos are dreary and static. Except for scout photo, cutlines dutifully tell me who everyone is. Good page 1 art. I would look for a style to present photo packages other than the one here where the cutline looks like a news story.
4. Athens Daily Review. 12/6: Good photo coverage of single sports event with good cutline information. Sports lends itself to good photos, however, and for that reason photo on bottom of page is more interesting to me because it’s harder to get. 1013: Rushing caption on 7A too long. Do a story and short cutline. Ditto on 9A and 24A. Drop editorial comment. Too many photos with no IDs of people. These photos fill space but don’t inform. Top lA photo excellent. Everyone expects the obligatory shot on bottom of lA, but the top photo is a treat, and best in paper.
Column Writing
1. Plainview Daily Herald, Phillip L. Hamilton, subject Wild Bill. Good technique used to explain complicated political issues. He could have easily put us to sleep, but he made me want to read to the end. Candy bar column: Seems I’ve seen something similar in a high school paper, but I’ve got to admit it was clever. Mr. Hamilton obviously enjoys writing.
2. Big Spring Herald, Dave Hargrave, subject: follow lights to Klondike. Humorous treatment of an otherwise mundane event reveals depth of columnist’s powers of observation and imagination.
3. Bay City Daily Tribune, Nancy McCormick, subject sports celebrities. Well-written, makes a point worth considering that is beyond the simple question of whether basketball player retired early.
4. Texas City Sun, Cathy Gillentine, subject: mighty generous of you, Jack. Used her pen to needle some folks who obviously forgot who pays them.
Editorial Column
1. Pasadena Citizen, subject school kids. Well-stated. Good points. Subject: lottery. Investigative, important.
2. Plainview Daily Herald, subject Anderson. Good, worthwhile point. Subject tax flap. Well-stated position.
3. Bay City Daily Tribune, subject Ma Bell. Good topics, weak position. Subject retailers. Well-made point.
4. Corsicana Daily Sun, subject downtown. Point well-made and explained. Subject: posturing. Strong, good points.
Feature Story
1. New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung, subject coach of year. Well-written story and accompanying photo sets mood well. Captured coach’s personality, tragedy and community. Subject woman looks back. Captures flavor of woman’s career, personality. Excellent photos. Encouraging to see effort put into coverage of women’s sports as a news feature.
2. McKinney Courier-Gazette, subject woman mechanic. Excellent photo. Good read, well-handled. Shows sensitivity to subject matter in non-patronizing manner. Subject miracle woman. Miracle inhead needed attribution or quote marks or something. Good photo. Interesting, well-done story. Head should have included “plane” with “crash.”
3. Waxahachie Daily Light, subject ranching. Photos probably more interesting than story. Would have liked to know more about what brought two men together. Good effort that could have been better. Subject domino players. Story has good feeling for players. Photos lack composition and tone.
4. Pasadena Citizen, subject: living laboratory. Readable, well coordinated story, photos and design. Subject: lottery winner. Fails to draw reader into story. Too much like many other lottery stories. Photos most interesting aspect.
News Writing
1. Pasadena Citizen. Good newspaper, writing clear, story selection varied. 4/18: I liked growing evidence, district officials, and winning drought on 11/17. Writing is clean and clear.
2. New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung. Good newspaper. I like coverage of two big local stories: LaFarge decision and bank closing. Both had excellent sidebars, good use quotes throughout.
3. Stephenville Empire-Tribune. Newsy paper, obviously tuned-in to community: football layout on 12/15. I liked seeing page 1 play on sexual harassment trial, 11/4, but it was spoiled by bad jump.
4. Brenham Banner-Press. A lot of local news, most of it well-written. Coverage of Daytop controversy is good.
Sports Coverage
1. New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung. 12/5: Great layout, good photos; good package on Todd Mitchell column! I like anchor down left side, but I would consider bumping up size of text on briefs and keep agate where it is. Lead story could use more quotes, especially from players. Don’t limit to coaches’ quotes. 11/14: Nice use of kicker head, “Great time to peak.” John Huseth: Good shots! Your breadth of coverage isn’t great, but what you do, you do well!
2. Waxahachie Daily Light. 12/5: I get the feeling Jeff Osborne is giving this community what they want out of your newspaper. I like the fact that he wrote a prep game story with good quotes in about 12 inches. Bravo! Way to swing for the fences in your layout. Personal preference: I might would’ve played the “What a thriller” head up top, then photo, then story, then graphic. But it’s still a good page with good photos. Good photo page. You might want some tighter crops, though. 11/14: Solid layout again. I wouldn’t use kicker on sidesaddled captions:
“Pride & Tradition.” Just let caption do the work. If this were a stand-alone photo package, it might work. Here, it doesn’t.
3. Stephenville Empire-Tribune. 12/19: First of all. I applaud your paper for realizing importance of state championship, and blowing it out on front page! I like inside photo layout, but watch your headline. This is a good opportunity to pull quote and use that as a lead, such as “The best feeling of my life.” A couple of style problems: 1. Watch redundancies: Example: perfect 16-0 season; first-ever (just 16-0, first); 2. Yellow Jacket’s championship year should be: Yellow Jackets.’ Watch possessive on plural names. 1117:1 like use of deck heads. Good layout! Game story seems really long. You might want to consider using breakouts to show defensive stats. etc., or use sidebars.
4. McKinney Courier-Gazette. 4/4: Lead story is written fairly well, but does this story require 20-22 inches? I like “next game” breakout. Solid column, but get second or third read for typos. 4/11: Why run “Sweet Re-LEE-f” graphic with Ryan story?
Division 3 Semiweeklies more than 4,000
Advertising
1. Uvalde Leader-News. Great headlines on ads. Ads neat, clean, professional. Most ads have prices when needed. Good ad positioning. Pizza Hut logo on school menu ad? What happened? This ad department is delivering its best. Editorial department is helping you. Great Halloween on parade page. Every page a joy to look at.
2. Hood County News, Granbury. Clean, clear, bold ads. Great! Super headlines. Pleasant grocery ads, easy to read and use. Effective, creative use of color draws attention to, but does not take away from, the ads (Granbury Auto and Norman Lumber). Two-inch Kountzy Kar Korner ads in classifieds good for client and reader. Woods Furniture ad is super. Picture, color and prize all work in Granbury Auto Ranch ad on 5/5.
3. Round Rock Leader. Spadia wrap excellent. Store or business hours off some ads. Customers need this. Health Scope directory good. These people do a good job of putting lots of useful information in their ads for the consumer. No generalities here. Too much burying of ads. Though this may be (your) style, it’s better for editorial or pictures to touch ads - always! Nice religion page ads. Super job on all ad design and content. Great pic on K-Bob’s ad and La Petite Academy. Henna Chevrolet color, layout, benefit and interest heads good, however, what are their days and hours? Super job, folks.
4. Hockley County News-Press, Levelland. Ad copy too wide in First Federal loan ad. Nice hospital greeting ad - unique. Ads bold and neat. It’s clear that ads are given personal attention in headlines and art and content. Ads easy to read, Great graphics. Good show on the livestock
Best Use of Photography
1. Williamson County Sun, Georgetown. Very good layout (see sports section). Bitter Harvest very good.
2. Hood County News, Granbury. Excellent: layout, content, use of visual image.
3. Wharton Journal-Spectator. Excellent layout, content, balance.
4. Best Southwest Focus on the News, DeSoto. Excellent balance, content, layout, inking.
Column Writing
1. Williamson County Sun, Georgetown, Clark Thurmond, subjects: winds aloft, universe, intruder. This guy’s good. He’s got description, flair, even use of the unexpected, down pat. And, he’s not afraid to be brief. His readers are lucky.
2. Cedar Creek Pilot, Gun Barrel City, Barbara Gartman, subjects: second thoughts, race tragedy, children fragile. Tragedy is touching writing. Her questions haunt. Writing, is simple; personal feeling touching. No confusion, just empathy. Good column. Fragile start and ending points are clever. Writer has both insight and ability to convey a lot with few words. Needs to remember verb-subject agreement.
3. Hood County News, Granbury, Leland DeBusk, subjects: my turn, those sexy birds, joy of rain. Good work, especially on Sexy Birds. Writing is good wordsmithing combined with imaginative thought. Brings smiles and keeps you reading, waiting for next chuckle.
4. Uvalde Leader-News, Margaret Rambie, subjects: dubious honor, life After Meza. Dubious honor quick-witted, fast-moving, just short of too smart-aleck. Good work. Meza column lost initial punchy at end. It got slow.
Editorial Column
1. Hood County News, Granbury, subject: Koresh, school board pajama party. Koresh has strong language, strong message, whether you agree or not. Pajama even better. Point of following intent rather than letter of law is well-taken. Writing is strong.
2. Wise County Messenger, Decatur, subject: Gas Disaster Probe, Klan Rally. Gas is an excellent, hard-hitting piece on a subject that needs to be addressed. Good words that could produce action. Klan has same qualities, but is weakened (cheapened?) with graph about young girl that didn’t fit flow of an otherwise admirable effort.
3. Richardson News, subjects: road construction, school board. Road is a good editorial. Poked a little fun at a serious subject, but keeps seriousness intact. School shows responsibility, has some good writing, raises some good questions. Let’s get rid of out-of-date editorial “we.”
4. Irving News, subjects: AG opinion, ethics code. AG is an excellent editorial. Good words on a tough subject. Such blatant infringement on public right to know cannot be tolerated. Keep challenging. Ethics makes good points with some good language, but uses too much of it. No reason for such length. Despite that, still strong.
Feature Story
1. Grand Prairie News, Penny Boyett. Good story, outstanding effects in background.
2. Hood County News, Granbury, Leland DeBusk. Outstanding story. Good attention to detail.
3. Round Rock Leader, Sophia Huang. Strong, informative story. Photos were an excellent combination with story.
4. Williamson County Sun, Georgetown, Brian Pearson. Story very good and pictures complemented it.
News Writing
1. Irving News. Reporters deliver news with punch. Leads sharp, crisp, to the point. Rest of body content focused and terse. Reporters do a great job of bringing people into coverage. Obituaries contain good amount of background. Briefs are interesting. Irving News offers a good sense of what community is all about. My only complaint. Jumps are hard to follow. Why not package them on one page?
2. Garland News. Interesting page 1 stories. Missing boy coverage and writing excels! Leads compelling. Stories contain complete details. News is reader-oriented and works to encourage reader participation. One suggestion: Stories should jump to same page.
3. Williamson County Sun, Georgetown. Entries are an excellent read, compelling in nature and presentation. Staff devoted considerable effort to two major issues: Apple package and sheriff’s death. Good balance of features, hard news and community reporting. Tower Glover report is a good people story.
4.Round Rock Leader. Strong, compelling, pro-active leads draw reader onward. Staff writers let readers know why they should care. Briegs and info boxes are well-written.
Sports Coverage
1. Center Light and Champion. Excellent sports photos that are played well in what is a good overall design. Good leads. Excellent stories and balance. An exciting sports package.
2. Hood County News, Granbury. Excellent local sports coverage. Great use of agate. Strong photos. Creative heads and overall design.
3. Wharton Journal-Spectator. High local story count It seems everything is covered. Product needs better layout on inside sports pages and some better photos.
4. Grand Prairie News. Strong stories, well-crafted. Good stats on local teams. Excellent graphic package and use of 4-color.
Division 4 Semiweeklies 4,000 or less
Advertising
1. Clear Lake City Citizen. Originality abounds in Bay Area Focus as does ad variety. Classy issue.
2. Canyon News. Discover Canyon gives positive impression. Good ad content variety. Map and locator good for newcomers.
3. Bowie News. My Lord! Ad sales staff is doing well. Lots of good ol’ bigguns in 1212! I like the baby graduates.
4. Liberty Vindicator. 11/28: Federal Land Bank logo enlarged and not cleaned up. Old Timers issue a good idea. Should have been well-read. Artwork used was effective as was colored paper. Good to see advertiser placed above filler ads.
Best Use of Photography
1. Clear Lake City Citizen. Good feature photo, 12/29, by Trigg Gardner. Nice blend of b&w, color on feature by Laura Moran. Good use of color throughout.
2. Brazorian News, Lake Jackson. Photos not bordered. Nice use of large photos. Some eye-catching photos, 7/8, especially underwater photos on 3A.
3. Commerce Journal Nice Christmas lights feature page, unusual shots, good use of large photos. Frontier Day good use of pages.
4. Quanah Tribune-Chief. Lots of photos in few pages. Good. Good spread on Quanah hotel.
Column Writing
1. Commerce Journal, Paul Harris. Funny! Best in bunch. Nice conversational style.
2. Brazorian News, Lake Jackson, Teena Edinger. Good variety of subjects. Nice style. Very personal.
3. Waco Citizen, Nick Connor. Forceful. Makes you stop and think.
4. Bowie News, Barbara Beckwith Green, subject dinner theater. Good angle. Liked mentioning names.
Editorial Column
1. Canyon News, subject strengthen floodgates. Great stuff. Local interest. Well-written.
2. Mid-Cities News, Hurst, subjects: cast your vote, make that call. Writer stays on local subjects and leaves high and airy subjects alone. Also gets what needs to be said quickly. Good job.
3. Brazorian News, Lake Jackson, subjects: Barneti’s secrecy, hotel/motel tax. Decent, writer. Local interest.
4. Liberty Vindicator, subjects: semantics, criminals. Hard-hitting, aggressive, well-written.
Feature Story
1. Arlington News, subject: Kelly’s courage. A real winner, a tragic human interest story. Stunning 2 pages of photos. Photo of victim and mom is a prize-winner itself Very professional. Fiddling story also well-written and illustrated.
2. Commerce Journal, subject: Blueberry Hill. A beautiful feature, excellent photos and fine typography. Very readable. Habitat story also was well-written and illustrated.
3. Brazorian News, Lake Jackson, subject: Lake Jackson Gators, infant swimmers. Softball story well-written and illustrated. Good typography. Infant swimmers also interesting feature. Good photos.
4. Perryton Herald, subjects: rape victim, family reunites. I applaud the Herald for telling it like it was in this startling feature. It forces readers to face some brutal realities and perhaps its message will be of aid to others. Reunion story interesting.
News Writing
1. Clear Lake City Citizen. Writing is clear, concise, telling not only the facts, but the story behinds the facts. You can read the lead of a story and have the basics. Sidebars and solid quotes add life to the newspaper.
2. Mid-Cities News, Hurst. Solid, fresh writing on news people want to know. Stories are well-developed.
3. Commerce Journal. Spot news coverage combined well with stories of more depth. Writing is geared well toward providing readers with pertinent information.
4. Quanah Tribune-Chief. News writing shows an excellent grasp of the issues and an ability to explain them clearly. Fine description and detail were included in a fire story. I could feel the heat.
Sports Coverage
1. Mid-Cities News, Hurst. Definitely the best. 4/18: Nice, crisp layout. Lots of stories. Sports digest draws my attention. 11/25: Attractive design. Great use of press color.
2. Arlington News. Obviously owned by same company as Mid-Cities News. Good job of local sports. 4/14: Super photos, color repro good, nice layout, high story count. 11/18: Ditto. Great photo on 4B.
3. Rockwall Texas Success. 4/20: Good page 1 ation photo. Neat, crisp layout on sports pages. 8/31: Like big photo.
4. Brazorian News, Lake Jackson. 4/29: Nice variety of sporting events. Bad print job. 8/3: Good photos.
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