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2008 Better Newspaper Contest — Special Sections

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Blue Moon Special Sections

Routine Special Sections

View Winners' Slideshow

Daily Division

1. Lubbock Avalanche-Journal — “Heroes” Fantastic cover art and solid all the way through. Nice work. I really like the “four burning questions” theme.

2. Midland Reporter-Telegram — “Working Class Football Heroes” Terrific angle for an annual special section. I love the cover art and the whole thing is solid.

3. Amarillo Globe-News — “Discover Amarillo” This is the nicest community guide I saw today. I liked the timeline. I thought the tornado story was a good idea. Nice job!

4. Odessa American — “Winds of change” Great cover art. I like that a special sports section included a pertinent news story. Player photo page looks great.

Semiweekly Division

1. Wimberley View — “Guide to Wimberley” Wonderful high quality gloss product with cover to cover information. Interesting articles and eye-grabbing ads. Kudos.

2. Polk County Enterprise — “Welcome Guide” Good resource guide full of information. Some ad resolution problems. Great pictures. Good ad revenue.

3. Round Rock Leader — “Defense Never Rests” Great page design makes every article pop out. Good uniformity throughout. Excellent pictures. Pixelated ad on page 18 is the only error I could see. Nice job!

4. El Campo Leader-News — “Experience El Campo” Good quality magazine with valuable information. A product to reference throughout the year.

Weekly Division A

1. Jewish Herald Voice, Houston — “Weddings to Remember” Layout and concept art excellent. Inside photography helped this section stand out in a crowded field.

2. Pleasanton Express — “42nd annual Cowboy Homecoming” Good use of fonts on cover, which featured nice layout. Design throughout was well done.

3. Fredericksburg Standard Radio Post — “Visitors Guide” Good cover photo that shows area.

4. Hondo Anvil Herald — “Countywide Football” This placed because of the cover photo. It was striking.

Weekly Division B

1. Hill Country News, Cedar Park — “2007 Kickoff” This Kickoff section is the best in a slew of entries. Player sponsorship is a win-win for athletes and advertisers. Reports are comprehensive and deep. I like the large photos and the tab size format. Great job!

2. Cedar Hill Today — “Our Town” This section is a keeper! Size and weight are reader-friendly, the information included is comprehensive and the pages are laid out clean. Plus the color throughout is superb.

3. San Jacinto News-Times, Shepherd — “Welcome to San Jacinto County” Good use of color, nice size format. The pages are designed for easy read; good white space and use of photos. Lots of information included; a one-stop publication for residents.

4. The Clifton Record — “Velkommen” Very welcoming section. The warmth of the community is evident on every page. Nice use of color and the tab-size format is perfect for this section. Nice job!

Weekly Division C

1. The Citizen, Clear Lake — “Progress” Very colorful, bold cover. Nice color throughout. Good effort on content as well.

2. Century-News, Dripping Springs — “Guide to Dripping Springs” Nice color. Every story has art, creative headline, which is a plus. Good use of design with space allotted.

3. The Gazette, Alvord — “We are almost famous” Very creative design, nice personal touch with pullout quotes. Good content overall. Nice special section, sure to be held onto by many readers.

4. The Gladewater Mirror — “Gusher Days” Nice way to make a story out of events. Lots of missing cutlines with photos. Overall not bad. Love the oil field terms in the back.

Blue Moon Special Sections

Daily Division

1. Laredo Morning Times — “125th Commemorative section” “Eye catching” does not do this section justice. More like breath-taking. I loved the use of historic photos to create the photo album look. This is something I hope your readers treasure forever because of a wonderful sense of the community in depth in layout and content. Adding the historic pages was icing on the cake for me while examining this. Your should be extremely proud. Congrats on 125! I loved the scroll design on each page.

2. The Beaumont Enterprise — “Cheater, cheater” The topic was forward thinking, fresh and creative in every aspect. The amount of research led to well-written features that gave an inside look at the world of cheating. I enjoyed all the different angles and the use of color to reinforce the points. Great job!

3. Lubbock Avalanche-Journal — “880 Bobby Knight” This layout was amazing for the photos, color, design. The theme of the big “880” was very powerful throughout. I enjoyed the mix of hard features with quotes, Bob Knight quiz, etc. This made me get excited about this accomplishment for him. I get the sense from the writing that they are giving him a top honor well deserved by explaining every angle.

4. Victoria Advocate — “Victoria going nuclear?” The headline pulls the reader in wanting to know the answer. The information is presented in a clear, concise way. Wonderful use of graphics and photos to balance layout.

Semiweekly Division

1. Wise County Messenger — “The making of a champion: Trevor Brazile” Great photography. Excellent layout. Great account of him leading up to the event.

2. Williamson County Sun — “The courthouse” Nice section. Interesting article. Wonderful center spread. The topic is very unique. Great historical accounts!

3. Polk County Enterprise — “Lions Champions” Nice color! Layout was uniform and complete. The work that went into this project throughout the football season is evident. Good plans, excellent cover. A bit of a pixelation problem in one ad.

4. The Highlander, Marble Falls — “Flood edition” Great use of photos and color. Made me feel like I was there.

Weekly Division A

1. The Smithville Times — “Jamboree” Great time line. Good presentation of long time event hitting major anniversary milestone.

2. West Austin News — “Rivercity: Dancing with the Austin stars” High gloss stock helped this section get special attention.

3. Alpine Avalanche — “Claytie and Modesta Williams” Very nice design with touching stories. We like the bottom refers.

4. The Jasper Newsboy — “Bulldogs 3A champions” Reaction cover photo told the story here. We really liked the inside double truck.

Weekly Division B

1. The Dublin Citizen — “Dr Pepper World Records” I was truck by the front cover photo, which was unique in design. Each feature explained a different aspect of the event/history. The questions answered and the recipes were clever to break up the writing content. Although I wish there had been more color, the layout was fitting for this special event.

2. The Gazette, Alvord — “Sports Insider” Although the theme of football was common in this blue moon section, this entry was original. I agree that the design/format in color were a strong contributor. The writing content was informative and creative in the features on individual players, cheerleader, mascots, etc. Great job!

3. Crowley Star — “Tom Beesley Tribute” It is obvious the time and energy that was put into the tribute. The colored photos both of him and the layout of photos he took were compelling. I would have liked to see it all in color. The writing was caring and spoke from the heart. I especially enjoyed that his column was included with a column with the sister paper. Great way to pay tribute to Tom!

4. West Kerr Current, Ingram — “Family Chronicles” Each entry in this special issue was a story of early beginning. This is a simple idea of the sesquicentennial and with the professional, stylized writing skills it became something to treasure. I especially enjoyed the amount of photos used, but wish the layout was more creative with use of some color or advance design or format.