2004 Better Newspaper Contest — Community Service

Community Service

Daily Division

1st. Borger News-Herald, "What's Borger and Hutchinson County's Future?" - Wonderful work. The powers of the reading were definitely flexed in the piece. How exciting it must have been to receive overwhelming response to the shrinking of Borger. Respondents to an editorial survey yielded great ideas to ensure Borger's longevity. Extremely innovative. I really enjoyed reading the ideas and seeing the newspaper support. Great job!

2nd. Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, "Make Kids Count" - Outstanding work. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal has done an outstanding job with newspaper support to include great photos of the kids - their stories to go along with. This publication has definitely "Made Kids Count" in my eyes. Great work.

3rd. The Baytown Sun, "TSP Landfill" - Excellent. I feel The Baytown Sun did an excellent job supporting local area concerns of the landfill proposal problem. I felt the newspaper support was strong, fair and unambiguous in presenting the facts with the issues at hand.

4th. The Beaumont Enterprise, "PAISD" - There are very few things more wonderful than seeing the media expose corruption, even if the use of this word is strong in this case, some form of it clearly exists with regard to the selection of "finalists." The Enterprise did an outstanding job presenting the information, the subtleness of law and how it is manipulated to serve the few, to the public. Outstanding job, this is a very important piece of work.

Semiweekly Division

1st. The Clifton Record, "BARK Bosque Animal Rescue Kennel" - The Clifton Record did an excellent job of not only covering the project, but went above and beyond. The support of the paper was great! I really felt that the paper was involved from every angle.

2nd. Mansfield News-Mirror, "Relay for Life" - Mansfield News-Mirror did a great job covering this community service project. Seems to have been a very successful one. Great job! Way to get involved.

3rd. The Wimberley View, "Community Center" - The news coverage and photos were great. It was nice to see someone from the paper was physically on board for this. Good year-long coverage.

4th. Breckenridge American, "Read Across America" - What did the paper do besides cover the event? Might I suggest staff volunteering time to help someone to learn to read.

Weekly Division

1st. The Smithville Times "Alcohol Awareness" - Nice job. Very comprehensive coverage blended with advertising support from the community. Truly a positive service to the community. Your efforts help reinforce and inform readers of the importance of responsibility as it pertains to alcohol-related activity.

2nd. The Countywide, Karnes City, "Karnes County Firefighters" - Great job. This is what being a community newspaper is all about. Your efforts paid off in achieving the fund-raising goal for the new truck.  Putting your money where your mouth was proved worthy enough for others to join in. The section did an excellent job of informing readers of the impact and value local firefighters have within the community.

3rd. Duncanville Today, "Beer and Wine Sales" - Obviously, a huge issue for your community. Your paper presented both pros and cons effectively. Your coverage was thorough to say the least. Not the traditional community service fund-raiser, special section, etc. but very significant for the future of Duncanville.

4th. Lancaster Today, "Traditional Community Design" - Very thorough coverage of the Mills Branch topic. Obviously, through op-ed and general news coverage, the community was well-informed on every angle of the project. Even though the paper endorsed the plan, you still presented both pros and cons to this hot issue.