The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette received 11 first-place citations and won the award for general excellence among the state’s larger daily newspapers at the Arkansas Press Association’s “virtual convention” on Friday.
The Texarkana Gazette placed second for general excellence, which is decided on a point system for each first-, second- and third-place honor in 26 other categories. The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette placed third among the six large-circulation dailies that entered.
All three newspapers are owned by WEHCO Media Inc.
Clara Turnage, a former reporter for the Little Rock-based Democrat-Gazette, took the first-place honor in the news story category for her story “Lapping of water ends cries for help; handling of 911 calls stirs inquiry.”
Ginny Monk, another reporter for the Little Rock newspaper, won first place for investigative reporting for her series “Code violations follow landlord.”
Members of the Kansas Press Association judged this year’s competition, which drew 1,070 entries from 29 newspapers.
Among the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s other first-place winners were John Brummett for “The Unexamined Life” in the opinion category, Bob Holt in the category of sports news story and Stan Denman for graphic design portfolio. Ron Wolfe won first place in the category of freelance recognition for a profile of Bobby Reece Abbott.
Tommy Metthe of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette won two first-place awards for sports photography.
Teams of reporters from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette won first place in three different categories of community coverage: agriculture and business, education and tourism.
The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette won five first-place awards, including first place among all dailies for in-depth series reporting and editorial writing.
Two other WEHCO daily newspapers, The Sentinel-Record of Hot Springs and the Texarkana Gazette, were honored with first-place awards.