MISSOURIAN EARNS AWARDS IN NNA CONTEST

B. Ray Owen, longtime business editor of the Southeast Missourian, is responsible for the newspaper's business section, which received a first-place award in the National Newspaper Association's Better Newspaper Contest.

The Southeast Missourian captured eight awards in the National Newspaper Association's Better Newspaper Contest. The awards will be presented Friday at NNA's annual convention in St. Paul, Minn.

In all, the NNA received 3,682 entries in this year's contest.

The Southeast Missourian was recognized with three first-place honors, including best writing in the daily division. In choosing the Missourian, the judges said: "A first-rate newspaper with clear, well-written stories throughout. The news reporting is thorough."

Overall judging on writing was based on clarity of the entire newspaper, thoroughness of fact reporting, appeal of overall writing and impact of story leads.

The YELL literacy campaign was also honored with a first-place award in community service.

Judges called the YELL campaign "a novel approach to an age-old problem. You found a way to support literacy and your industry. Good work!"

The Southeast Missourian just completed its fifth YELL campaign, which is conducted in cooperation with the Area Wide United Way. About $35,000 was raised through advertising sales and street sales, which is split between the Newspaper In Education programs and literacy grants in Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Scott City.

The Missourian's coverage of business and economic issues also earned a first-place national award. Three Monday business sections were submitted for judging along with a front-page story about low unemployment and an editorial on the region's robust economy.

Judges praised the coverage, along with excellent photography on the front pages of the business sections. B. Ray Owen is the longtime business editor at the newspaper.

Second-place recognition was earned by the Missourian's photography staff for best use of photographs in the daily division. Judges praised "large photographs on sports and good local news shots that are relevant to local viewer interest." Missourian photographers contributing to the award were Fred Lynch, Don Shrubshell, Lou Peukert and Chris Stanfield.

An editorial written in February 1994 about a hazing death on the Southeast Missouri State University campus earned a third-place award. Judges deemed the editorial "a well-written call to conscience about a fraternity hazing death that hopefully can keep others from coming to harm in the future."

The newspaper also claimed three honorable mentions for feature writing, best spot news story and best use of color.

The feature story was written by former staff writer Bill Heitland about a man who fishes the Mississippi River. Staff reporter Mark Bliss and Heitland contributed to the winning spot news story on the hazing death at Southeast.

On best use of color, entries were judged on the basis of proper use of color, register, clarity, choice of colors and the overall effect of color in the entire issue. It is a joint effort between the photography staff and newspaper's production department.

The contest judged newspaper entries from 1994.

The NNA is the oldest and largest national newspaper association in the United States. It dates to 1885 and has more than 4,600 member newspapers. Total circulation for all members is more than 33 million. Membership includes most of the weekly and more than one-third of all dailies in the United States.