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2001 Better Newspaper Contest — Advertising

Division 2, Dailies 7,000 to 99,999
1st. The Paris News — “Kimberly Clark” Good image. A little more information might help (i.e. store locations and info.) “First Baptist Church” good use of type and image. “Campbell Soup” Great ad...good use of workers on can. Message conveyed well with very little copy.
2nd. The Galveston County Daily News — “Star Furniture” Copy intensive, but very clean. Informs and conveys message clearly. “Gene Hamon” Well done. Nice circular layout around “blue oval” starburst. Gives lots of info without being too “busy.” “I 45 Live” Good house ad. Cross-promotes guide and web clearly.
3rd. Odessa America — “Happy News Year” Great image tells the story. “Broncho” Broncho logo seems out-of-place with slick color overlay. A little busy for just two models. “Slider and Hembree” Wild eyes price could be bigger. Good idea referring the reader to the Yellow Page ad.
4th. The Beaumont Enterprise — “Morgan’s” Nice image and layout. Probably should mention furniture, antiques before pictures/accessories. “Girl’s Haven” Could reduce grayscale logo to allow space between copy points. Should highlight web address better. “Testimonial” Nice image and layout. Maybe a little too much text...less is more.

Division 3, Dailies Less Than 7,000
1st. Terrell Tribune — “Country Cleaners” I’ve never seen a full page “cleaners” ad; you must have ¨ great rates; very impact filled; needs fewer type faces. Art a bit murky. “Giles & Lay” Good head, high impact; good promise; photo art could be crisper. “House Carriers” We all gotta do these kinds of ads and you all have done it well. Copy could be tightened up but good photos.
2nd. Texas City Sun — “Sterling” Not clear what the art has to do with the message. Did all “18 local teens” go to play football at college? Trite headline. “UTMB” Good “introductions” with staff. Trite headline (again). Nice art at top of ad. “Texas Rail” Very nice ad. Love the art montage. Wish your other two entries were as strong as this ad is.
3rd. Alice Echo News — “Ralph’s” Clean, easy to read layout in what tends to be an overly cluttered category of ads. “EMS” Clean space. Lots of white space, good photos. “Alice Regional Hospital” Good concept; not so good use of multiple type styles in reverse box. Photos a bit murky.
4th. Ennis Daily News — “Allen Samuels Metroplex” Good “head” for naming what is going on. Just enough examples of sales cars. Not as cluttered as most such ads tend to be. “Platters” Cool art, nostalgic look works clean presentation of information. Easily the best ad in Division 3. “Ennis Ford” Why black and white cars? I assume the high school team is known as the “Lions.” Good use of graphics.

Division 4, Semiweeklies 4,001 or +
1st. Uvalde Leader News — “Middle Rio Grande” Nice color, nice layout. “Julien’s” Great idea. “Griffith Ford” Nice ad. Like the personal touch. Good idea with picture of the building also.
2nd. Hood County News — “Coldwell Banker” Beautiful. “Lake Country Travel” Very nice. “TexStar” Odd question after location and retired. Otherwise very nice.
3rd. The Graham Leader — “Skin” Very nice ad. “Brazos Cellular” Very good idea! “Ray Black’s” Very nice ad. Get’s right to the point!
4th. Burleson Star — “Education” Very nice, neat and situated nicely. “McBee Homes” Logo should be larger. “Walking distance” to what? Like the visual. “Olde Town Cleaners” Nice ad.

Division 5, Semiweeklies 4,000 or -
1st. The Bowie News — “Independence Hall” Bottom picture not best quality. “Continental Credit” Great ad would use different font on company name. “Trade City” Line up dates. Print fussy. Quality of picture poor.
2nd. The Light & Champion, Center — “Center Autoplex” Great. Writing in grass at bottom hard to read.
3rd. Breckenridge American — “CNB” Good ad. “Discount Appliances” Little hard to read over screen. Different font would help. “First National Bank” Couple of pictures a little dark.
4th. The Angleton Times — “The Outback” Art a little dark. “Goe Kawasaki” Good ad. “Cow Party Bingo” Cute ad. Clip art blurry.

Division 6, Weeklies 3,001 or More
1st. The Buda Free Press — “Budafest” Best ad in Division 6. Good color work, just enough information. “Allred” Good headline and art marriage. Too bad the art is so grainy. Clean delivery of message. “House” Good concept, but your name is too big and prominent in the middle of the “eye-dea.”
2nd. Kaufman Herald — “House” Yes, it does make your ad stand out. So does all that glorious white space. Effective and instructive. “Clothes Corner” Tells me what’s in it for ME! Good. (and white space, too!) “Feed store” (more WHITE SPACE!!!) Simple direct clean easy. Good job on all three.
3rd. Cameron Herald — “Appletree” Appealing head and art marriage. Simple, to the point, clear, easy message. “Chamber” Clear, clean info. Good graphic choices. Not real keen on the double graphic box at the top, though. “Yoeman” Your spirit shows is clean layout.
4th. Port Aransas South Jetty — “Fish” So droll, so fun, so funky, so strange. I like it. One of the three best ads in Division 6. “Train” Simple, straight forward and a coupon — yeah! “Pat Magees” I’d make the photo bigger, but good targeting to breakers.

Division 7, Weeklies 2,001 to 3,000
1st. Iowa Park Leader — “Ken’s Pizza” 1. This is a fantastic ad. Great tie in for holiday. Good layout/design. Lots of benefits. Good use of photos. Great ad for all readers. Coupons are good. (Very creative.) 2. Fun graphic. Good benefit. Headline with copy. I think it’s great. Good job. I love the cut out photo. Very creative. 3. Ken’s is lucky to have your designers/graphic artist. Extremely groovy ad. Since I’m familiar with The Brady Bunch I’m sure your reader enjoyed the ad. All of the ads passed the three-second rule. They all caught my eye. Keep up the good work.
2nd. The Community News, Aledo — “Troy Aikman Auto Mall” “Golf tourney” and “House” Good layout. Great use of graphic. Good headline. Easy to follow. Good use of photos
3rd. Olney Enterprise — “Home repair” “Clint’s” “Olney Fuel” Good layout. Good-looking ads. Very original design. Good use of white space, layout/design easy to read copy.
4th. Lancaster Today — “Mother’s Day” “Go Tigers” and “TXI” Good use of color, nice layout. Good use of color and photos. Easy to read ads. Good use of color. Great use of space. Wonderful ad.

Division 8, Weeklies 1,201 to 2,000
1st. Alvin Sun — “Alvin Equipment Co.” Header could be cleaner, but ad is well-balanced. No “the” in “90 days same as cash.” Flows well. “Stanton’s Shopping Center” Good header. A tad busy but graphics/images and use of color effective. “Sutherland’s” Nice ad. Good idea. Great art and good concept.
2nd. The Clarendon Enterprise — “Every Nook & Cranny” Nice ad. Maybe change “20% off” font and size. “House” Very creative. Good concept. Great image. “Massage” Good ad. Should include hours and address.
3rd. Castroville News-Bulletin — “Jack Winkler” Good concept of surrounding money machine/radio remote with vehicle. Prices should stand out more. Used listings cramped and busy. “Art show” Nice ad...good images. Flows nicely. “County fair” Saturday night dance confusing (after 6 p.m. starts 8 p.m. admission price should be separate.) Good use of state cutouts as starbursts.
4th. Springtown Epigraph — “Silver Creek UMC” Crafts, bbq, auctions etc. could be “bulleted” to make more effective. Clean ad. “3 Woods Smokehouse” Interesting concept combining a grand opening with a political ad. Is Don Chrestman an owner of 3 Woods? Confusing. “Arvell Newby” Nice ad...clean, informative easy to read. Price could be bold.

Division 9, Weeklies 1,200 or Less
1st. The Eagle Press, Fritch — “Radio Shack” Easy to read. Effective in what you are trying to sell. “Tanners” Great layout and use of color, graphics tell the reader what you’re selling. “Baptist Church” The best ad. Great use of graphic. Catchy headline. Very clean look. (My favorite.)
2nd. The Kerens Tribune — “Grammy’s Christmas” Good graphic. Creative in text graph leads readers through the story. “A-2” Very original. Directory fun to read. “House” Fantastic use of graphic; Great layout and design. Easy to follow and read. Great benefits. Tells the reader “what’s in it for me.”
3rd. The Freer Press — “South Texas Medical Center” Clean appearance. Great use of photos. Easy to read. “Alice Regional Hospital” Wonderful ad. Excellent layout/design. Great use of photographs. Easy to read message. (My favorite ad.) “EMS” Very informative, great info good message.
4th. Lytle Leader News — “Harris Country” Layout/design good, photo too much the same size. Need a large photo to catch the eye. Good benefits to reader. “Fleetwood” Good layout. Generalize color to one area. Hard to keep reader’s attention. Sometimes less is better. “Blossoms” Great use of artwork/photo. Layout/design is good. Caught my eye.