News awards

One desire of the Southeast Missourian editorial board is to lift up the good things going on in the community. In this space several times a week, we point out worthy causes and individuals who deserve a pat on the back.

Today, we're going to boast on ourselves just a bit.

It was recently announced that the Southeast Missourian was the winner of eight awards in the Local Media Association contest. The LMA is an organization that represents newspapers in some of the largest markets in the U.S. and Canada.

In this contest the Southeast Missourian is included in a circulation category of up to 30,000, which is about double the size of the Southeast Missourian.

Our newspaper took first place in best education coverage and best graphic category; second places in best headline, best editorial cartoon, best election coverage, best sports photography and best feature series; and third in best sports writing.

Reporter Erin Ragan delivered quality education coverage last year with issues surrounding the graduation rate and dress code; the graphics were produced by then-page designer Brandon Rottmayer and editor Bob Miller on the one-year flood anniversary and a timeline of the events that led to murder charges for Clay Waller in the Jacque Waller case.

The award-winning sports photo was taken by Fred Lynch at a gymnastics meet where he captured a gymnast floating in the air perfectly horizontal while her teammates were framed in the background standing under her.

Local cartoonist Taylor Crowe won for his drawing capturing the personification of the deer hunting debate in Cape Girardeau. In one of his cartoons, a local deer was sitting on a bench reading a newspaper story about the introduction of elk into Missouri. The young buck was claiming discrimination.

Kevin Winters-Morriss, former sports editor, won a sports writing award for his piece on Otto Porter's first year at Georgetown.

A team of journalists combined to win awards for election coverage and a feature series on the anniversary of the flood.

This is the second straight year the Southeast Missourian has captured an armful of awards. Last year, the newspaper won 16 awards, many of them resulting from the coverage of the historic flood in 2011.

We'd like to take this time to congratulate the individual and collective accomplishments of the newsroom.