Newspaper receives 16 awards in APME contest
The Sentinel- Record received 16 awards, including third place in general excellence, on April 14 during the Arkansas Associated Press Managing Editors Convention at the Red Apple Inn in Heber Springs.
The contest was judged by the AP- member editors in Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota.
The state’s daily newspapers competed in 26 categories in three different circulation- based divisions. The Sentinel- Record competes in the Large Daily Newspaper category, which includes the Arkansas Democrat- Gazette and the Texarkana Gazette.
In awarding General Excellence, the judges noted The Sentinel- Record’s entry, made up of three editions, two of which have to come from specified dates, showed “strong content, nice design and excellent pictures with reproduction.”
Awards received by the newspaper’s staff included the following:
• Richard Rasmussen received first- place awards for Spot News Photo, for a May 20, 2011, photograph of an apartment house fire at 103 Virgil St., for Feature Photo, of a hot air balloon, and Feature Sports Photo, of a horse at Oaklawn Park. Rasmussen also received a third- place award for Spot News Photo for coverage of the April 25, 2011, tornadoes, and a third- place award for Spot Sports Photo of a baseball game.
• Executive Editor Melinda Gassaway received a first- place award for Editorial Writing for her May 11, 2011, editorial, “Tourism ‘ joke’ hardly amusing,” regarding Mayor Ruth Carney’s post on a social media website, and third place for Column- Hard News. She also received a second- place award in the Headline category.
• Sports Editor Bob Wisener received a first- place award for Sports Story, about the Kentucky Derby, and a second- place award for Sports Feature, on Terry Wallace. Wisener also received a second- place award for Sports Column.
• Sports writer Sean Saunders received a third- place award for Sports Feature for his Nov. 24, 2011, story on Fountain Lake’s Michael Pope.
• Managing Editor Mark Gregory and page designer Jennifer Shinn received a third- place award for Page Design.
• The staff, including Alison B. Harbour, Jim Newsom, Steven Mross, Mara Kuhn, Don Thomason, Jenn Ballard, Gregory and Rasmussen, received a third- place award for News Coverage, for coverage of the April 25, 2011, tornadoes.
• Thomason received a third- place award for Political Reporting for coverage of Carney questioning attendance figures at the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade.