The New London Press-Star received a first-place award in the Most Improved Newspaper category in the 2014 Better Newspaper Contest put on by the Wisconsin Newspaper Association (WNA).
The awards were announced at the WNA Convention and Trade Show, Friday, Feb. 27 in Waukesha.
A total of 2,897 entries were entered in the contest from 172 Wisconsin newspapers. The newspapers were placed in six different categories based on circulation. The New London Press-Star and Clintonville Tribune-Gazette competed against other newspapers with circulations up to 2,000.
Judges had this to say about the Press-Star’s new look, “Front page redesign is a significant improvement. … Really like the new masthead. …Sports section much-improved.”
Other awards received by staff of both newspapers are as follows.
Sports Editor Tim Beimal received a second-place award in the Sports News Story category for his stories, “Jirscheles reach Major League goal” and “Jirschele comes full circle.”
Judges had this to say about Beimel’s work, “This story goes above and beyond about Mike Jirschele getting into the major league and his family.”
Jeff Hoffman received a second-place award in the Spot News Photo category for his “Barn destroyed in fire” photo.
Judges had this to say about Hoffman’s photo, “Shot has layers that are interesting to unwrap. Fires tend to be standard, but this crop and exposure captured a lot.”
Editor Bert Lehman received a third-place award in the Local Sports Column category for his Full Throttle racing column covering Shawano Speedway.
Judges had this to say about Lehman’s column, “You have to like a column that helps launch a whole publication on the subject.”
The Tribune-Gazette also received third-place awards in the All-Around Newspaper Photography and Most Improved Newspaper categories.
Judges had this to say about the Tribune-Gazette, “Liked the section headers. …Great use of photos.”
Beimal also received a third-place award in the General News Photo category for a photo that appeared in the County Post East.