The Texarkana Gazette took nine first place awards in the Arkansas Press Association Better Newspaper Contest, plus the Photo of the Year award.
Assistant News Editor Danielle Dupree won the Photo of the Year award, deemed the best of the 30 winning entries in all six divisions and five photo categories. The image was of a rural storm scene.
The Texarkana Gazette took second place in General Excellence; The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock took first place and the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette took third among six large-circulation dailies that entered.
The Democrat-Gazette had 11 first place awards, the Texarkana Gazette had nine, and Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette had five.
General Excellence places are determined by a point system with each first-, second- and third-place honors in 26 categories contributing to a composite score.
First place awards:
Aaron Brand for Feature Story, for "Deep with the Wood," a piece on Ivory Henderson who has been woodworking for 45 years and specializes in African traditional pieces.
Brand for Sports Feature Story, for "Fifty years ago L-E football became much more than a game," about the 1969 Liberty-Eylau High School football team that set the tone for the rest of the student body during that first year of full racial integration.
Les Minor for General Interest Column Writing, for "Ross, me and Texarkana history," a reflection, following his death, on H. Ross Perot's many visits here.
Minor for Headline Writing for the heading, "Another city has finally ratted us out" on a column about how Los Angeles has finally overcome Texarkana in all-time rat race infamy.
Dupree for Single News Photo for image, "A storm approaches," taken as a fall storm front moved through. The photograph was taken in Lafayette County, near the Miller County line. It was also judged as Photo of the Year.
Hunt Mercier, for Single Feature Photo called "Eyes on the Future." It was a photo of Zachariah Hilley taken in March of 209 at a robotic demonstrations at Pleasant Grove High School.
Hunter Mercier for Picture Page/Photo Essay for a display of photos related to the 2019 Agent Barry Live United Bowl held in Texarkana.
Andrea Miller and Dupree, for Best Front Page Design. Contestants entered a set of three front pages.
Karl Richter and former Gazette reporter Ashley Gardner for Community Coverage of Health and Medical issues. Judges considered a set of four articles on this topic.
Second place awards:
Richter for Beat Reporting, for his coverage of the Grim Hotel redevelopment. An entry consisted of a minimum of three articles from a reporter covering a specific beat.
Dupree for Single Feature Photo for her image "Reflection of cypress trees," a landscape portrait taken at Smith Park in Miller County.
Mercier for Single Sports Action Photo for his image of Ashdown's basketball player Lamar Wilkerson leaping near the basket.
Richter for Coverage of Agriculture and Business. Each entry consists of a set of four stories on this topic.
Brand, Richter and Minor for Coverage of Tourism. Judges considered a set of four articles on this theme.
Third place awards:
Russell McDermott for News/Political Column Writing for his piece titled "Trademarks and words that cannot be spoken."
Josh Richert for Humorous Column Writing, for his take on Pegboard Climbing, a new competition announced for the 2020 summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, where men and women will climb a pegboard wall.
Mercier for Single Sports Feature Photo, for an image of Ashdown players and fans celebrating after winning the Class 3A basketball state championship.
Brand and Jennifer Middleton for Community Coverage of Education. A set of four articles was considered by judges.
Honorable mentions:
Lynn LaRowe for Beat Reporting, for coverage of issues related to local jail compliance.
Andrea Miller for Headline Writing for her topper on a story about canceling the annual fireworks celebration. It read "Sparks in the Park fizzles out."
Miller and Dupree in the Picture Page/Photo Essay category.
This was the only journalism contest the Gazette entered this year, as several were canceled because of the pandemic. The contest was judged by members of the Kansas Press Association.
Texarkana competes in the high-circulation daily newspaper division.
The awards were announced Friday at the annual APA contention, held virtually this year.