The Oklahoma Press Association recognized Garvin County News Star staff with two first place honors at the Better Newspaper Contest Awards ceremony during the Oklahoma Press Association Convention in Oklahoma City June 8.
The News Star’s Suzanne Mackey won first place in the news story category for her article on Garvin County residents who rallied to oppose a recycling facility for oil field waste last year.
“Comprehensive, evenhanded yet highly readable report on a complex and controversial subject. Wellwritten, well-reported and well-sourced. This is firstrate journalism,” the judge wrote.
Mackey also won first place in the sports category for a story about Maysville golfer Bentley Armstrong, who had the opportunity to meet pro golfer Tiger Woods last fall when he was chosen to play in the TGR JR Invitational at Pebble Beach. “What an accomplishment for this young golfer and the story does a good job of capturing how big a deal it is. Very well done,” the judge wrote.
The News Star also received second place honors in the news category for an article reporting on the sentencing phase of an animal cruelty case in Lindsay.
Sequoyah Award winners in the OPA Better Newspaper Contest also were announced at the June 8 awards ceremony. In the divisions for daily and online-only publications, winners were The Norman Transcript and Tahlequah Daily Press. Sequoyah winners in the weekly divisions were the El Reno Tribune, Midwest City Beacon, Choctaw Times, The Purcell Register, The Keystone Gusher and Minco-Union City Times. The Cameron University Collegian 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 and design, advertising, editorial writing, photography, sports coverage, sales promotion and community leadership. The nine divisions are based on publication frequency and city/town population.
Individuals were able to receive awards in 16 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, front page design, video journalism or marketing, and online project. The contest also included a digital media category, awarded to the publication.
Members of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association judged almost 1,450 entries from 74 Oklahoma news publications.
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 2023 OPA Better Newspaper Contest is available on the OPA website at okpress.com/contest-winners- 2023.
