2009 Better Newspaper Contest — Advertising

Division 2 Dailies 7,000 to 99,999

1. Victoria Advocate — “Port Lavaca Dodge” Fun ad, forces attention. Type not dramatic enough, but still effective. Editorial type almost competes. Maybe screen back. “Jack FM” Photo engaging. Good use of space. Typography could be “less” stacked. “Crossroads Dining” Crisp, clean ad. Type minimalistic, but not well placed. Images (spoon) more engaging than type.
2. The Paris News — “Turner Industries” Clear focus. Easy to understand. Clean layout. Good use of transparencies and color. Not clear on benefits of product identity. “Kimberley- Clark” Fun, engaging. No call to action. Type conflicts with background. “Reeps Fine Furniture” No comments.
3. Fort Bend Herald — “Rodriguez Construction” Easy to read, nice use of color. Could be less industrial to be more “inviting” to reader. Motto fight with logo. “Manhattans” Direct, no nonsense. Draws the eye, good flow. Waves nice effect. Header and content compete. “Enchanted Nurseries” No comment.
4. New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung — “Chacon Suzuki” Style, layout, reads well. Easy on the eyes. Price (color) battles with header. “Bluebonnet Ford” no comments. “Elect Daniel Boone” No comments.

Division 3 Dailies 7,000 or Less

1. Seguin Gazette-Enterprise — “Seguin Chevrolet 1” Incentives should be a bit smaller. The visual effect of the cars coming out of the ad is great! Good job! “Seguin Chevrolet 2” Wow! Incentives could be a bit smaller; however this ad is awesome! “Seguin Chevrolet 3” Love this ad!! Logo should be at the bottom of the ad versus the upper right corner. More space needs to be between the incentives. Good job!
2. Plainview Daily Herald — “Plainview a great place to work” Photos speak volumes! A lot of text makes the ad a bit overwhelming. It took me, as a reader, a bit to find out what the ad was thanking Plainvew for. “Physician Network Services” The blurb at the bottom is hard to read and takes too much time. The top of the ad is compelling and extremely eye-catching! “Harvest moon walk” The selling power is in the headline “trick or treat these downtown merchants” and should have been larger. Art is great and not too crowded.
3. Taylor Daily Press — “First State Bank” The photos are wonderful. Italic fonts are harder to read than Times. I liked the size of the logo. “Boyar Automotive” Ad is extremely busy. Over three type fonts are found in the ad. The initiative was excellent, just a bit too much information. “Terra Properties” Love this ad! The fisherman with the house could have been a bit smaller. Italic headlines and body copy are hard to read.
4. Waxahachie Daily Light — “dippin’ dots” Comments are the bottom concerning “Sarah” are too small. The top half of this is great. Ad should have been made bigger in order for all info to stand out. “Ellis County attorneys” blends in too much with the flag. The attorneys’ names could be made a bit smaller, giving room from the headline. “Plaid Donkey” Great ad! The “30%” is the most important part and that is where the focus is. The photo is large and created a sense of familiarity. Great job!

Division 4 Semiweeklies 4,001 or More

1. Wise County Messenger — “Washburn’s Used Cars & Tires” This ad would look good on a black and white page. The phone #s at the bottom are a bit hard to read. “Crossword” Wow! Powerful and creative! Good job! “Stephens Bastian & Cartwright” Photo is great. Type of the left and right of the logo makes the ad seem busy.
2. The Graham Leader — “House ad” Good ad! “Bailey Auto” The copy is a bit confusing and took us some time to figure out. “No paws left behind” is great! Photos are large and the text size is just right. Copy in the left right side is a bit too much and should be cut down.
3. The Highlander, Marble Falls — “Blairs” Nice ad! Easy to read. Photo is doing the selling! “River City Grille” Address and phone # are a little lost in the logo. I liked thisad! “Backbone Valley Landscaping” Too much info inside the circles. Hours are too small and are lost in the background.
4. Hood County News — “Downtown Store” This ad needs to be larger to accommodate all of the copy. Color usage is great! “Support our troops” The camo font is awesome! The lower left corner is too hard to read. Body copy could have been a bit smaller. “Pan Handle” Great ad!

Division 5 Semiweeklies 4,000 or Less

1. Port Lavaca Wave — “House ad series” Great eyecatching color and artwork.
2. Liberty Vindicator — “Golden’s 1 & 2” and “Trinity Valley Exposition” Great design and layout. Each ad had a way of drawing your eye through the ad.
3. Andrews County News — “Pinto’s Run” “Harper Financial” and “Death by Disco” Good clean, crisp ads that make your eyes focus on the ad.
4. The Light & Champion, Center — “Lynne’s Eat’N in” “Ray Jones Chevrolet” and “America needs God” Good use of artwork and design.

Division 6 Large Weeklies

1. Park Cities People — “Women’s Wellness Institute” “W South Tower” and “Gage Homes” All ads had a nice clean use of art and photos, inviting the reader into the ads.
2. Hays Free Press — “Budafest” and “Change” The Santa and light bulb ad were excellent ads in artwork and design. Both were very creative. “Great Locations” No comments.
3. Wylie News — “Pet Hospital” What person isn’t attracted to dogs and cats staring at you? “Annie’s” A classic look with the cake adding class to the ad. “Big Daddy’s Roadhouse” No comments.
4. Mansfield News-Mirror — “Chicken Reds” had a warm appearance that drew you into the ad. “PO grand opening” Your eyes were taken by the way the brush style color was used behind the grand opening. “Walnut Creek” No comments.

Division 7 Medium Large Weeklies

1. Hill Country Community Journal, Kerrville — “River Side Grill” Simple ad theme with photos down the side to draw your eye through the entire ad. “Celia’s Closet” Crisp black and white ad that gets your attention. “Moore’s” No comments.
2. Pittsburg Gazette — “Pilgrim Bank” Grabs your attention. Great use of artwork. “House ad prom” Simple clean house ad. “Faulkner Chevrolet” No comments.
3. Westlake Picayune — “Capital City Sotheby’s” “Victor’s Exteriors” and “Thai Spice” All three ads had a great use of artwork and design.
4. Hamilton Herald-News — “Fundraiser” “First National Bank” and “House ad” Very simple idea and design. Good use of white space.

Division 8 Medium Weeklies

1. Clay County Leader— “Big Sky boots” Boor ad makes me want cowboy boots! Beautiful quality photo and design. Very professional looking! “Four Stars Auto” Great use of color and fun way to involve photos of staff. “First United Methodist Church” Great graphic elements and color. Attention getting.
2. Marlin Democrat — “The Texas Touch” Great photo and headline makes me want to get a massage! “Arthur’s Bargain” You get the idea there is a ton at this bargain center! “Marlin Vet Clinic” Creative idea. Could have been bigger and would of liked to have seen an actual dog in your face photo. Headline font difficult to read.
3. Springtown Epigraph — “Thanksgiving feast” Clean, got all the information without overcrowding, cute turkey. “Candy roundup” Very creative idea. Good use of color and graphics, but copy gets busy. Bigger ad or shorter copy. “Boyd Raceway” Clean simple layout. Attention getting and to the point.
4. Dublin Citizen — “Bradberry Builders” Great headline. Clean, simple layout. Name is not a stand-out. Charlie or Jeff? “Sonic” Should have photo of Santa. Takes a long time to get it. “Dublin Insurance” Great graphic. Fun idea. Boxed info takes away from ad, needed to not be boxed.

Division 9 Small Medium Weeklies

1. The Albany News — “Meet the author” Clean layout, well balanced, great use of artwork. “Lady lions” Creative and encouraging, nice layout, nice layers, great text boxes on bottom. “Albany Lions JV” Overall great looking ad!!
2. Pflugerville Pflag — “Fairlady Salon” Attention getter, draws you in. “B&H Customs” Clean ad, gradiant shaded background and text box makes overall appearance clean. “Lonestar Kolaches” Headline does a great job bringing reader into ad. Logo is hard to read, too small. Your ads were pfantastic!
3. Ozona Stockman — “Monica’s Hair” Eye-catching artwork, fun ad. (Are these new services? Specials?) “Your vote counts” Creative artwork mixed with text. Original fun, easy to read, moves reader to react. “Trunk show” All around cute! Artwork and copy go very well together. Eye-catching ad.
4. Princeton Herald — “Doc’s Catfish Buffet” Great font! Layout eye-catching well spaced, easy to read. “Victor’s Italian Restaurant” This ad is boring. Coupon should have restaurant info and expiration date if they’re really coupons. “Eerie Books” Broken up well. Nice layers, overall look is great.

Division 10 Small Weeklies

1. Murphy Monitor — “Woodbridge Golf” Eye-catching art relates to product. Could have chosen different font for “complete practice….” Good use of art. “In-Sync Exotics” Nicely balanced. Liked drop shadow on heading. “Chapparal Boats” Compelling art. Nicely organized and consistent use of fonts for each item. Could have made “inventory reduction…” more prominent and compelling at the top of ad.
2. Olton Enterprise — “South Plains Irrigation holiday” Nice seasonal message. Ad is selling message not a product and images support concept. Like that you left some white space. Glad you limited fonts. “Valley Ag Electric” Not as good as #1, but used similar layout concepts. Too bad about printing/registration. Gave logo good placement. “Valley Ag Electric Mustangs” Ad stands out from others on page. Great image. Shows initiative to set it up. Didn’t clutter ad with extra text, boxes or bursts. Clear and sosphisticated.
3. Big Lake Wildcat — “Crude Ralley” Good position of art. Good organization of a lot of copy. Gray background helps as standout from others. Try to keep boxes and text margins the same on top/bottom/left/right – looks neater. “Congrats” nice image-attention getter. Selling power, not sure if this ad meets this category. Would have been nice if text stayed in tinted box. “K n R Liquor” Man in corner draws you into ad.
4. Keene Star — “Orthodontist” Communicates message. Ad is a little complicated but organized. Main points and message stand out. “Long Tide Homes” This is the weaker of the three ads. Looks like two separate ads / two different messages. Too many different fonts. “RV Ranch” Used nice central image to draw attention. Image could have more white space on right and left.