Southeast Missourian claims awards in contest

The Southeast Missourian won four first-place awards and one second place award in the Suburban Newspaper Association contest. The Missourian also won second place for general excellence.

Staff writers Marc Powers and Laura Johnston won Best News Series for their series on marriage.

For the Best Feature Series, Callie Clark won for her series chronicling the ups and downs of Jason Bandermann's first year of teaching in the Cape Girardeau school district.

The Missourian won the Best Headline award with the headline that appeared June 20 over an article about the real estate boom in Cape Girardeau County. Judges based their decision on the effectiveness of the headline to draw the reader's attention to a particular article. The winning headline: "Multiplying Subdivisions."

To win the best front page award, the Missourian submitted three front-pages of its own choice, according to SNA rules. The entries were from Feb. 19, May 22 and Aug. 5.

According to the SNA rules, the best front page is "one that creates a positive first impression of the newspaper and entices readers to read the inside pages."

Judging was based on news writing, layout photos, design, graphics, flag and use of headlines.

In the category of best in-depth reporting, Callie Clark and Bob Miller took second place for their series on autism, which generated reaction from across the country.

According to Kim Cole, marketing manager for the Suburban Newspaper Association of Travers City, Mich., this year's contest had a record number of entries: 2,246. Entries were judged both across the board and according to circulation size.

When editor Joe Sullivan announced the awards Monday to the news staff, he commented "I noticed our main competition this year was last year's first-place winners, so this is quite an achievement."