St. Tammany News Named Newspaper of the Year

St. Tammany News won Newspaper of the Year honors from the Louisiana Press Association Saturday, April 14, taking seven first-place awards in the editorial competition and capturing the sweepstakes award for advertising entries in the state’s Division 5 for community newspapers published two to four times per week.

Newspaper of the Year honors are based on points earned in the Better Newspaper Editorial Competition and the Better Newspaper Advertising Competition for 2006; awards are given in individual contests for first, second and third places and for honorable mention.

In all, the newspaper won 39 awards at the 127th annual LPA convention in New Orleans.

The Alabama Press Association judged the competition in which 83 newspapers, publications and college/university student newspapers submitted 4,451 entries.

The contests for editorial categories range from judging the entirety of the paper or magazine to examining specific aspects such as news or feature stories, design and photography. Advertising awards are given based on design, creativity and their effectiveness.

Aside from Newspaper of the Year, St. Tammany News won first places for best feature story (Matthew Penix); best regular column (Tom Lindley); best lifestyle coverage; best continuing coverage of a single news event (news staff); best feature photo (Leslie Ackel); best sports photo (Jacob Brooks); and best editorial cartoon (Roy Robinson).

In advertising, the newspaper won first place for best staff generated black and white ad 1/2 page or under (Kristi Cullen); best staff generated black and white ad 1/2 or over (Cullen); in-paper promotion, color (Chad Hebert); best classified section; best retailer ad (Sheila Allemand); and best special section.

Also, the newspaper won first place for best Web site.

Other editorial awards were best front page, second place; best editorial page, third place; best single editorial (Lindley), second place; best news story (Ackel), honorable mention; best sports story (Brooks), second place; best regular column (Brooks), third place; best overall sports coverage, third place; best continuing coverage of a single news event (Suzanne Le Breton), third place; best continuing coverage of a governmental issue (Andrea Daniel, Le Breton), second place; best continuing coverage of a governmental issue (Le Breton), third place; best feature photo (Shane Douglas), third place; best photo feature (Gwen Ladner, Mike McCall), third place; and best editorial cartoon (Robinson), third place.

Other advertising awards were staff generated black and white ad 1/2 page or under (Cullen), second place; staff generated black and white ad 1/2 page or over (Leroy Beckham), third place; in-paper promotion, color (Cullen), honorable mention; multiple advertiser page (Cullen), second place; best services ad – non retail (Judy Parsons), second place; best services ad – non retail (Cullen), third place; best retailer ad (Parsons), third place; best special section, second and third places; and general excellence, honorable mention.

At Friday's annual LPA stockholders meeting, St. Tammany News General Manager Sandy Cunningham was elected to a three-year term on the LPA Board of Directors.