SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN WINS AWARDS IN CONTEST

The Southeast Missourian was honored with 16 awards in the National Newspaper Association Better Newspaper '98 Contest.

The awards were presented over the weekend in Reno, Nev.

The newspaper earned four first-place, three second-place, three third-place awards and six honorable mentions.

In addition, the newspaper was featured in the community newspaper Showcase of Excellence due to its first-place award in General Excellence for dailies in 1997. The publication is produced by the Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media at Kansas State University and the NNA. The publication was distributed at the convention.

The newspaper took second place in General Excellence this year for all dailies entered in the national competition. As such it will be featured for a third straight year in the Showcase of Excellence for 1998. The first-place winner was the Gainesville Sun. The Florida daily has a circulation of 54,075 daily and 62,926 on Sunday. The Southeast Missourian has circulation of 17,500 daily and 21,000 Sunday.

Awards included:

First Place:

-- Best Use of Color.

-- Best newspaper promotion for Random Acts of Kindness.

-- Best Coverage of Business and Economic News, including the Missourian's daily business report and weekly Business page.

-- Best Coverage of Technology or Technological Issues, including Click and Double Click columns written by Joni Adams and Peggy Scott and the Medical Surfari columns written by Dr. Scott Gibbs.

Second Place:

-- General Excellence.

-- Best Sports Pages.

-- Best Coverage and/or Promotion of Literacy for YELL.

Third Place:

-- Best Editorial Writing.

-- Best Coverage of the Performing Arts.

-- Best Newspaper Web Site for www.semissourian.com.

Honorable mention:

-- Excellence in Typography.

-- Most Humorous Headline for "Waiting `In-dy' rain," written by Sports Editor Jeff Breer.

-- Best Writing.

-- Best non-newspaper product for beginning Internet classes taught by the staff of semissourian.com.

-- Best Coverage of Health-Related Issues.

-- Best Coverage of Education.

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.