The Oklahoma Press Association presented its Better Newspaper Contest Awards during the OPA Annual Convention, June 9-10, at the Grand Casino Hotel and Resort in Shawnee.
For the contest, members of the Hoosier State Press Association judged almost 1,550 entries from 77 Oklahoma news publications.
Individuals were able to receive awards in 14 categories – news story, feature story, sports story, business story, education story, in-depth reporting, column writing, small space ad, large space ad, news photograph, feature photograph, sports photograph, photo essay/picture page and front page design.
Garvin County News Star editor and reporter Suzanne Mackey was recognized with five individual awards for news and feature writing. Mackey won first, second and third place awards in news writing and first and third place for feature writing in Division 8 for articles published in the News Star in 2022.
Winners of this year’s Sequoyah Awards in the OPA Better Newspaper Contest also were announced at the OPA Convention. In the divisions for daily and online-only publications, winners were The Lawton Constitution and McAlester News-Capital. Sequoyah winners in the weekly divisions were the El Reno Tribune, Mustang Times, Piedmont-Surrey Gazette, McIntosh County Democrat, Lincoln County News, and Yale News. Northwestern News at Northwestern Oklahoma State University was the winner in the college news media division.
The Sequoyah Award, which is the highest honor in the Better Newspaper Contest, is determined by the number of points accumulated in eight of the contest’s categories: news content, layout & design, advertising, editorial writing, photography, sports coverage, sales promotion and community leadership.
The contest also included a digital media category in three publication divisions – daily and online-only, weeklies and colleges.
In addition to the nine Sequoyah Award winners, almost 200 first place plaques were presented during the awards banquet. News publications and individuals placing second and third in the contest received certificates.
A complete list of winners in the 2022 OPA Better Newspaper Contest is available on the OPA website at okpress.com/contest-winners- 2022.
Also announced during the two-day convention were the recipients of the OPA H. Milt Phillips Award and the Oklahoma Newspaper Foundation’s Beachy Musselman Award.
Receiving the H. Milt Phillips Award was Susan Ellerbach, former executive editor of the Tulsa World. The OPA Board of Directors selects the recipient of the Milt Phillips Award.
Ellerbach earned a journalism degree from the University of Kansas before working at a group of Kansas newspapers, followed by the Tahlequah Daily Press and Tahlequah American.
In 1985, she joined the Tulsa World as a business reporter where she covered everything from real estate to politics. A decade later she was named managing editor. She then made Tulsa World history when she was the first woman to be promoted to executive editor in 2014 where she remained until her retirement in 2020.
Ellerbach was inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame in 2010 and received the Woman of the Year Pinnacle Award from the City of Tulsa in 2014. More recently in 2018, she was named a Tulsa Press Club Media Icon.
Receiving the ONF Beachy Musselman Award was John Small, managing editor at the Johnston County Sentinel.
Since beginning his career in the 1980s, Small’s work has earned nearly 250 awards from the Oklahoma Press Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Newspaper Association and other organizations.
Many of the stories Small has written have had a major impact on the community. Less than a year after he started at the Johnston County Capital-Democrat, he began work on a series about the county- owned hospital, which at the time was in danger of being closed down. That series played a major role in the passage, by county voters, of a one cent sales tax to support keeping the facility open.
He volunteered to serve on a variety of local organizations over the years. He is a founding member and past president of the Johnston County Reading Council, and a past president of the Johnston County Chamber of Commerce among others.
Following the death of longtime publisher Ray Lokey in 2018, the Johnston County Capital-Democrat closed its doors. Determined to see that there would still be a locally owned newspaper in Tishomingo and Johnston County, Small joined forces with Ray’s brother, Tom and his wife Mary, and founded the successor publication, the Johnston County Sentinel, where Small currently serves as managing editor.
The recipient of the Musselman Award is selected by the Oklahoma Newspaper Foundation Board of Trustees.
The Oklahoma Press Association’s Half Century Club inducted Brenda Adams, longtime advertising professional at several newspapers, and Joyce Carney, publisher of the Country Connection News in Eakly.
The Quarter Century Club also inducted two new members: Jeff Mayo, publisher of the Sequoyah County Times and six other newspapers, and J.D. Meisner, publisher of the Cushing Citizen and two other papers.
Several additional awards were presented during the June 9-10 convention including:
•Stillwater News Press received first place in the OPA Magazine Contest.
•Ray Lokey Memorial Award for Excellence in Reporting, presented to Gary Lee, The Oklahoma Eagle.
•Editorial Sweepstakes Award, sponsored by ONG, presented to David Stringer, The Lawton Constitution.
•Column Sweepstakes Award, sponsored by ONG, presented to Sheila Gay, Woodward News.
•Daily, Semi- or Tri-Weekly Photo of the Year, sponsored by OGE Energy Corp., presented to Kyle Phillips, The Norman Transcript.
•Weekly Photo of the Year, sponsored by OGE Energy Corp., presented to LaDonna Rhodes, McIntosh County Democrat.
•ONF Joseph H. Edwards Outdoor Writer of the Year presented to Ed Godfrey, The Oklahoman.
