1998 Better Newspaper Contest — Special Awards
Texas Press Association
Community Service
Special Sections
Sweepstakes
Division 1 Dailies 15,001 or more
The Beaumont Enterprise
Division 2 Dailies 15,000 or less
New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung
Division 3 Semiweeklies 4,001 or more
The Williamson County Sun
Division 4 Semiweeklies 4,000 or less
Rockwall Texas Success
Division 5 Weeklies 3,001 or more
Park Cities People
Division 6 Weeklies 2,001 to 3,000
Lancaster Today
Division 7 Weeklies 1,201 to 2,000
The Albany News
Division 8 Weeklies 1,200 or less
The White Oak Independent
Dailies
1. The Galveston County Daily News. Moody Gardens: Truly a public service piece. The paper really did their job of looking out for the public. Comprehensive research, reporting that was first class and packaging the information in an understandable way really made for a good read, and probably made government officials realize they weren’t going to avoid scrutiny. It’s tough taking on the most powerful people in any community.
2. The Brazosport Facts, Clute. Prisoner Abuse: A tough subject to tackle. An unpopular group of people to protect. A really top-notch job of reporting. Tough to do, and you did it with real professionalism. Nearly took first place.
3. Texas City Sun. Texas City’s Legacy: Incredible historical piece. Almost overwhelming in its comprehensive nature. An amazing story treated well by a paper that has high standards. Design was outstanding for most of the project, but almost fizzles out at the end where ads intrude — one even taking up three-fourths of a section front. Good use of photos, personal witness accounts and historical commerce boosterism for the current safety and environmental standards, it was quite fair and was certainly competitive with 1st and 2nd place.
4. Baytown Sun. Kids Having Kids: Good use of charts and graphs to supplement the photos and stories. It all went together well, if a bit repetitive. Handled the issues with class and insight while avoiding judgmental attitude. Great effort. Very impressive.
Semiweeklies
1. The Garland News. Women’s Wellness Fair: Wow! A community service project that produced $12,000 in ad revenue. Congratulations.
2. The Canyon News. A Community Pulls Together: An excellent job of keeping the community informed of Ashley’s trials and recovery.
3. Polk County Enterprise, Livingston. AIDS: Very informative articles and a good community awareness service.
4. Burleson Star. Every 15 Minutes: A good project to put before young people. The one question I have is who came up with the idea? I guess it really doesn’t matter because you carry through with a lot of space.
Weeklies
1. Westlake Picayune. Community Library: A great community project that benefited the entire community. The newspaper kept the community informed and helped make this project a success. Good job!
2. Tulia Sentinel. Tulia Day Nursery: Good project for newspaper. This is an important issue in many communities and you have done an excellent job in bringing it into focus in your city.
3. Park Cities People. Eating Disorder: Lots of good content, pictures and letters. I am sure readers were very interested in this young woman’s story. Hopefully, they learned the signs and information about eating disorders. The newspaper certainly did a good job.
4. Madisonville Meteor. Youth Curfew: Was this a one-man project of the paper? Even though it affects lives of the community, how many in your paper were really involved with this issue? Glad to see you are able to report and make changes happen.
Division A—Dailies
1. Seguin Gazette-Enterprise. Life and Times: The presentation of this product is wonderful. Packaging is important and you’ve done a first-rate job in coming up with something fresh and new. This is A-plus! Content, too, is excellent. You have covered each area of your community very well. Layout and design adds to the overall pleasing, enticing package. Great effort.
2. Galveston County Daily News. Citizen of the Year: Great coverage of the people in the community. Nice layout and design. I’ll bet this is easy to sell to advertisers, too!
3. Odessa American. Our Town: Each section front has great punch. Photography is excellent. Coverage of a large area is difficult but well done here.
4. Baytown Sun. Kids Having Kids: Excellent coverage of an important topic. A newspaper’s mission is, in my opinion, to bring issues such as this to the attention of the community. You have done a very good job of covering all aspects of this topic. Inside photos are excellent. Cover photo a little dark. Registration of color needs to be improved.
Division B— Semiweeklies
1. Center Light and Champion. Pride 97: Incredible piece of work all around.
2. Burleson Star. A Vision Shared: Excellent four-color photos on fronts. Excellent theme and outstanding work.
3. Wise County Messenger, Decatur. Graduation 97: Outstanding picture quality. Photographer should be recognized for creativity for front photo.
4. Cedar Creek Pilot, Gun Barrel City. Wildflowers: Photography is superb.
Division C—Weeklies
1. Pleasanton Express. Cowboy Homecoming ‘97: Great effort on news and advertising. Lots of good information for the community. A well-read section, I am sure, for the readers in Pleasanton. Excellent presentation. By far the best homecoming section I have ever seen.
2. River Cities Tribune, Marble Falls. 101 Fun Things to Do: A very well put together guide for people of the community and visitors to use. It makes for very easy reference. Listings are numbered and the index ties it all together. Very nicely done. Great job.
3. Tulia Sentinel. How Can We Make the Angel Sing: Very good idea. Lots of “warm and fuzzy” for readers to learn about all the good things going on in their community. Readers love to read about real people in their own backyard. Good theme.
4. Azle News. Arts in Azle: Good idea to combine kids’ ads with things going on in the community and schools. Fun section for the readers of your community. Great job. Also liked the index on the front. It’s reader-friendly.
Division D—Weeklies
1. The Community News, Aledo. Third Annual Good News Issue: Great but how about some inside? Very clean layout. Good stories. Quality photos throughout section. I applaud your theme. Weeklies should concentate on “good news.” Keep up the good work.
2. The Citizen, Clear Lake. Progress 97: Nice to have full color, but it needs to be sharper. The ad on the back of Section A is very poor. Excellent content. Clean, consistent design. Nice variety of subject matter. Very nice section overall. Good job!
c3. Albany News. Albany Guide: Very nice cover! Excellent design. Good use of. spot color. Quality photos. Could use more people in photographs. Very professional-looking section. Nice mix of ad and editorial content. Outstanding effort!
4. The Canadian Record. League of Women Voters: Nice front page. Weak cover on special section. Good use of color in middle pages, 10-11 and 36. Inconsistent photo quality. Some good, some bad. Nice layout design. Good range of coverage. Homes tour pages are well done. Very
- Log in to post comments