Southeast Missourian wins 47 awards in state contest

"I would feel as if I got my money's (and) brain's worth each day with this daily," the judge wrote. "It is diverse, well-written and reported (with a) clean, organized layout which really helps break up the gray inside. Nice, engaging photos. ..."

Those words came from the 2017 Missouri Press Association's Better Newspaper Contest, specifically in the category of general excellence, of which the Southeast Missourian took home first place. We are certainly proud of those comments, and they are standards we try to uphold on a daily basis. We strive to deliver you a quality product every day, and hope you find that you get your money's and brain's worth each day by reading the paper.

The Southeast Missourian won big in the recent statewide contest. The newspaper was judged against other newspapers of similar circulation. Our journalists won more than 40 awards in what is intended to be a contest that takes a comprehensive look at a newspaper's content, from sports to rural/agriculture content to education to breaking news and investigative reporting.

The Southeast Missourian took home firsts in the following categories:

• Best coverage of Rural Life or Agriculture
• Best feature photograph
• Best magazine/alternative publication (Flourish)
• Best page design
• Best editorial
• Best sports feature photograph
• Best sports feature story
• Best sports news story or package
• Best story about the outdoors
• Best news or feature special section
• Best news photograph
• Best investigative reporting
• Best sports pages
• General excellence

The Southeast Missourian also won 14 second-place awards, 11 third-place awards and eight honorable mentions, for 47 awards total.

We are quite proud of our journalists, who immerse themselves into their craft daily. While these awards are reflective of the quality we strive for, they are not the reason we do the work.

Our newspaper and our journalists believe in the role they play to bring you news, information and stories of your community. We are happy to tout the awards. But the work we do is for you, dear reader. Thank you for supporting your community by supporting local journalism.