Gazette captures more than 30 awards
Texarkana Gazette took the Sweepstakes award in the North and East Texas Press Association and more than 30 other awards in Texas and Arkansas journalism competitions, according to winners lists provided this summer.
Sweepstakes represents the most overall points, established by placement, in all contest categories.
The Gazette took four other first place awards in the NETPA competition.
Lynn LaRowe and Karl Richter took top honors in News Writing, Evan Lewis and Jerry Habraken in News Photography, Creative Services department in Advertising Design and Les Minor in Column Writing.
Richter’s story was about the shifting impact of alcohol sales in Texarkana and the region. LaRowe’s story was coverage of the Billy Joel Tracey capital murder trial.
Lewis’ photo was of Harlan Jones loading water for hurricane relief. Habraken’s photo was from Christa Shockley’s candlelight vigil.
Minor won for two opinion pieces; one about the shifting of alcohol sales in the region, the other titled “What happened to downtown?”
NETPA second place awards went to the sports staff (Josh Richerts, Jason Hopkins, Brian Tyl and Earl Gill) in Special Sections for the 2017 Football Preview; to the staff for Community Service for a package covering immigration in Southwest Arkansas; to the staff in General Excellence; to Stevon Gamble, Andrea Miller and Danielle Dupree for Headline Writing; to Evan Lewis for Sports Photo; and to Russell McDermott in Editorial Writing.
NETPA third place awards in Sports Writing went to Brian Tyl and Earl Gill, in Feature Writing went to Aaron Brand and in Column Writing went to McDermott.
The Gazette competes in the high-circulation daily division.
Texas Associated Press Managing Editors Contest
Karl Richter took first place in Specialty Reporting related to his coverage of the shifting wine and beer sales in Texarkana and the region. Richter also took honorable mention in the Feature Series category and honorable mention in Short Features.
The Gazette competes in Division AAA against daily newspapers with circulations between 25,o00 and 125,00o based on combined print and digital readership.
Arkansas Press Association Better Newspaper Contest
The Gazette won top honors for Best Sports Pages and eight other awards in this competition.
Jason Hopkins, Stevon Gamble and Andrea Miller contributed to the entry that featured three sports page covers. Second place awards went to Aaron Brand and Jennifer Middleton for Coverage of Education and Kayleigh Moreland for Single Feature Photography.
Third place awards went to Les Minor for News/Political Column, Kristen Doss for Best Graphic Design Portfolio, Jerry Habraken for Single News Photograph and Joshua Boucher for Single Sports Action Photograph.
Honorable mentions went to Lynn LaRowe for News Story and Minor for Sports Column.
The Gazette competes in the high-circulation daily division. Judges from the Louisiana Press Association judged the contest, evaluating 307 entries from six newspapers.
Arkansas Associated Press Managing Editors Contest
The Texarkana Gazette took third place in General Excellence and in Special Project-Community Service categories of the Arkansas APME contest, along with eight other awards.
General Excellence reflects overall accomplishment in all aspects of journalism. The Gazette’s Special Project-Community Service entry was a multi-day package of stories called “Immigration Uncertainty.” Almost all of the reporting and editing staff contributed to the effort.
Second place awards went to Aaron Brand for Business Reporting, Jennifer Middleton for Education Reporting, Karl Richter for Health-Related Coverage and Joshua Boucher for Feature Photography.
Third place awards went to Richter for Beat Reporting, Kristen Doss for Graphics, Evan Lewis for Spot Sports Photography and Feature Sports Photography.
The Gazette competes in the high-circulation daily division. Another WEHCO Media newspaper, the Arkansas DemocratGazette, took first in General Excellence.