2004 Better Newspaper Contest — Advertising

Advertising

Division 2 Dailies 7,000 to 99,999

1st. The Beaumont Enterprise - "Red barn" Simple layout, straightforward effective ad. "Bead Barn" Brilliant, great artwork, complementary fonts/type and a simple message. Very effective. This ad is the reason for #1 standing. "Easy'" Very nice, full color ad on non-color graphics so that the graphics that are color standout. Great!

2nd. The Paris News - "Nissan of Greenville" Great ad. Graphics match up with fonts/type that is used. Color is very complementary (blues/greens). This ad is the reason for #2 standing. "Kimberly-Clark" Nice ad. Not extremely original, however, a baby in full color is hard to ignore. "Turner International Piping Systems" Not bad. The layout is a little off, but it is an original idea, definitely an attention-getter.

3rd. The Herald-Coaster, Rosenberg - "Houston Community Bank" Great ad. A money tree is definitely appropriate. Very nice job on the offset of reverse/regular print. Original. This is the reason #3. "Occasions In Ink" and "Broadstone" Not bad, I feel that screening a shade on newsprint is a little redundant. These ads would be much more effective if the screen were left out. The overall tone however is noticeable.

4th. San Angelo Standard-Times - "House ads" 1. (Becky Brackin) This ad is the reason for #4. It's thoughtful and presented very well. The proportion of the face versus the rest of the ad makes this a very well thought out ad. 2. Good ad. I think the face is a little large versus text. Takes away from the message, but not bad. 3. Good ad. A graphic with a face is a bit much and takes away from the message, but overall it is good.

Division 3 Dailies Less Than 7,000

1st. Texas City Sun - "Rent 2 Own" Excellent! The color coordination, set up, photos, the ad just jumps at you and gets your attention. "Texas Yamaha" Excellent. Setup, photo, color all around gets your attention. "Alexander Maytag" Excellent. Wise choice on art work, layout and color coordination.

2nd. Terrell Tribune - "Dr. Marshal Miller, D.C." Good! Photo, layout, good way to use white space and color. "Discount Tire" Excellent! Idea originality, photos, color and layout excellent! "Napoli's II" Good. Original to the point ad. It's like an invitation, not a sales pitch. Good!

3rd. Sweetwater Reporter - "Football contest" Good. Layout, color gets your attention. "Tuesday business page" Excellent! Good color, layout and idea and ad info good. "Toliver Auto Plaza" Excellent. Excellent on idea, photo large enough to see faces and the full color stands out well!

4th. The Huntsville Item - "La-Z-Boy" Good, ad idea, color, photo (not clipart) all around good layout. "Card and Party Factory" Good. Good-looking ad, not too busy, just enough info. "Wiesner Huntsville" Excellent! To the point, good use of white space. Good ad!

Division 4 Semiweeklies 4,001 or More

1st. Wise County Messenger - "Vote for school bonds" Wonderful artwork, good layout, very nice. "Firehouse Gym" Nice artwork, clean, crisp headline. Good use of space. "Wise Regional Health System" Great headline! Good photography and good use of white space.

2nd. Round Rock Leader - "Halina's European Day Spa" Nice photo, good choice of color. "Heatherwilde Park" Needs a defined headline. "Tanushi" Should have played off the Asian theme a little more.

3rd. The Bowie News - "Lone Tree" Nice artwork, good choice of typeface. "Snooze or Lose" Headline works well with artwork. "Bowie Industries Inc." Nice photo!

4th. The Graham Leader - "Graham's" Good use of holiday theme, but more color would have been nice. "Boaz Department Store" Nice photo, but not headline. This photo screams for a snappy headline. "Graham Regional Medical Center" Good use of white space. Very effective.

Division 5 Semiweeklies 4,000 or More

1st. The Light & Champion, Center - "Eddie J. Chisenhall" The ad says it all! Top builder with every type of construction available. Sells! "Monco Motor" The juke box leads you into the copy. A good automotive ad! "Fred Hudson's Hardware" Again, like the other ads the ad sells! All three are attractive selling ads!

2nd. Mansfield News-Mirror - "J&S Air Inc." The headline sells the copy. Copy covers the benefits of the product. "Children's Courtyard" Attractive page. Subtle selling points. Good open artwork. "Mansfield Pools" We are truly talking "water." Good use of color.

3rd. Lampasas Dispatch-Record - "St. Mary's" Excellent ad! Excellent copy! Excellent on a stand-alone entry. "Ace Home Center" Good ad, but rather typical, not outstanding. "Benny Boyd" Good automotive ads. I like the headline.

4th. The Gatesville Messenger - "Spring open house" Good use of artwork. Good ad! "AT&T Wireless" Good local wireless advertising. Headline gets attention. "Gatesville Funeral Home" Good copy for a delicate subject.

Division 6 Large Weeklies

1st. Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post - "Fredericksburg Office Supply" This ad truly shows elegance. Open space, the font choice and graphic all flow. Just stands out. "Root" Lots of white space. Graphic definitely grabs attention. "Granite & Iron Store" Photo gives you an idea of what they offer. Font choice flows nicely with artwork. The artists at this paper seem to understand the customers' business.

2nd. Duncanville Today - "Summer specials" Good looking page. Suggest for color usage photos a tad small. "House ad" Great concept. Photo usage works well. Sigs are well spaced and each stands out. "Fall specials" Again a good looking page, each ad stands out.

3rd. The Navasota Examiner - "Roland Garza MD" Nice ad, subtle background does not over power information. "Wildflower Florist" Good looking ad. Might have used less color in background to let photos and information stand out more. "Viking Floor" Clean ad. Large graphic. I might have used the graphic as the border.

4th. Burleson County Tribune - "Exxon" Great looking ad. Not too many font changes. "Hughes Rental" Yellow text makes for hard reading. "Fix-a-Dent" Nice looking ad. Graphic of rain doesn't match concept of ad. Hail instead of rain maybe?

Division 7 Medium Large Weeklies

1st. The Marlin Democrat - "Keith Ace Hardware" Good ad. The happy vegetables are very effective and set off nicely from the text. "Flag" Great ad. The single graphic of the flag surrounded by the text is very effective. "Drink responsibly" Great ad! Simple, effective with armadillo. Great idea for an ad. Watch out for PETA!!

2nd. The Free Press, Diboll - "REMAX" Good job. The use of a goofy graphic with text/photo makes this ad effective. "Subway" Great job. This ad is so effective, that I could put it up against a full color ad, anytime. Great work. "Huntington State Bank" Good ad. Good idea, and a nice expression of that idea. Nice graphics. Solid ad, great message, text/fonts, graphics.

3rd. Clay County Leader - "2003 Black Gold Brigade" Great ad! Most aspects of effectiveness are covered from the type of fonts used to the amount of white space left. "First National Bank" Beautiful ad. Simple message, that is designed, presented very, very well. "Four Stars Auto Ranch" Very nice. Christmas colors complement the overall message of the ad. Good job. All ads: Not extremely original, but well thought out and very well presented. Great job!

4th. Rockwall County News - "Regal Realtors" The strategic use of color in the ad makes it effective. Not a terribly original idea for an ad, but it works. "House ad" Nice ad. Simple and straightforward. These ads are hard to judge because there is not as much originality to these ads.

Division 8 Medium Weeklies

1st. Iowa Park Leader - "Dutton Funeral Home" Nice background color. "House ad" Good concept of using old and new together. "Ken's Pizza" Good color layout.

2nd. Pearland Reporter-News - "Pearland State Bank" Good color, layout and ad copy layout. "Jicama's" Excellent spot color and copy layout. "Fall special" Cute baby and good spot color.

3rd. Pilot Point Post-Signal - "Pilot Point ISD" Excellent color usage and I like that it is in English and Spanish. "Barbara Pike M.D." Good point of using people and ideas.  "Christmas shopping guide" Excellent color. Each ad stands out on its own.

4th. Cedar Hill Today - "Hops n Grapes" Nice ad layout. "House ad" Excellent color layout but there was a typo in the word congratulations. "Cedar Hill business card" Very nice ad layout. Color was excellent.

Division 9 Small Medium Weeklies

1st. Lexington Leader - "Ace Hardware" Love brides registering at Ace. Unexpected juxtaposition. Good concept. "House ad" Easy read, easy to get it fast. "Alcoa" Oh so cute, great use of photo art.

2nd. Hico News Review - "House ad signs" Good way to localize for readers. Photo repro could be better, but nice concept. "Hico Banking Center" Fun concept for boring product category. Unexpected. "House ad births" Bold impact feel, compelling. Nice job.

3rd. The Ozona Stockman - "Troop support rally" Good use of photos of townspeople. Quick easy read. "Crockett Co. WCID #1" Another fast read; you guys are good at that. "Ozona National Bank" Good use of graphics, fast read.

4th. Midlothian Today - "Bridal expo" Very pretty, appealing ad. Good photo. Good color reproduction. "Heritage Land Bank" Nice photo, makes me want to be there. "House ad" Good color repro, like the team shots.

Division 10 Small Weeklies

1st. The Morton Tribune - "Frontier Days" Ad was laid out very nice. Uses space well. Great picture to capture attention of the audience. Several ads sold. "Frontier Valley Inc." Nice looking ad. Used space well. Great job with the pictures. Nice to see the pictures weren't just placed in there with a box around them. "Charro Festival" Beautiful ad. Nice layout, uses space well. Color was great.

2nd. The Eagle Press, Fritch - "Beat the clock" Did a great job with space and I love the spot color. "Video Plus" Nice ad. Message gets across. Ad with the colors captures my attention. "Center for Texas Culture" Nice layout. Space used well.

3rd. The Princeton Herald - "Princeton Pharmacy" Very nice full page/full color ad. Used space well. Very eye-catching. "USA Fireworks" Color stood out but didn't like small black and white picture of snow cone trolley. Color was kind of fuzzy. Very busy ad. "Dr. R. Greg Maul, M.D." Nice looking ad. Great clear pictures. Used space well.

4th. Century News, Dripping Springs - "Wimberley Auto Supply" Liked the ad. The clip art blended in great with the message of the ad. "Time Line" Not much to it. Somewhere in the content it should have stated that it was talking about your Internet account. I'm guessing that's the account it's talking about to renew. "Y Bar & Grill" Ad looked great. Did a great job laying it out. Definitely catches your attention.