MISSOURIAN WINS HONOR FOR `EXCELLENCE'

COLUMBIA -- The Southeast Missourian won first place in the General Excellence category for medium-sized daily newspapers in the 1991 Missouri Press Foundation Better Newspaper Contest.

The Missourian also won third place in the general category of "Best News Content," behind the Kansas City Star and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and third place in the "Special Section" category, behind the Post-Dispatch and the Springfield News-Leader.

The special section award was presented to the Missourian for its February "People in Progress" tabloid.

The awards were presented at an awards luncheon Saturday during the 125th Annual Missouri Press Association Convention and Trade Show in Columbia.

Publisher Gary Rust, Editor Ken Newton, Managing Editor Joni Adams and Staff Writer Mark Bliss represented the Missourian at the awards luncheon.

Judges in the General Excellence category lauded the Missourian for its strong local news emphasis on the front page. Although judges pointed to possible improvements with the paper, they said those "things are minor compared with the value local readers must get from this paper."

Finishing second in this category was the Blue Springs Examiner and finishing third was the Joplin Globe. The Jefferson City News Tribune and the Sedalia Democrat got honorable mentions.

In the "Best News Content" category, the judge praised the Missourian for "excellent selection of stories and photos." The "People in Progress" special section was "filled with fun features and photos," the judge said.

Other comments included: "Outstanding design from front to back ... extremely well-planned look at living in Southeast Missouri."

Members of the Illinois Press Association judged the record 2,074 Missouri newspaper entries. The 1,195 entries from weekly papers and 879 from the dailies were more than 200 over last year's record number of entries.

The two largest daily newspapers in the state, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Kansas City Star, tied for the Gold Cup award in the contest. The Gold Cup competition is determined by total points compiled in the contest, and the winners tied with 100 points each.

The Springfield News-Leader won the Gold Cup the previous two years.

The Marshfield Mail won in the weekly newspaper category for the second straight year.