Messenger wins top awards

Published Thursday, April 10, 2008

By Staff

The Wise County Messenger has been named best twice-weekly newspaper by the North and East Texas Press Association.

The Messenger captured the sweepstakes award for twice weekly newspapers in the 2008 Better Newspaper Contest.

The awards were announced at a luncheon Saturday at the Holiday Inn Select in Tyler.

Reporter Brandon Evans won journalist of the year in the semi-weekly division.

His entry included feature stories about Boyd saddle maker Ladd Clark, the temporary closing of the Acme Brick plant in Bridgeport and Pearl Harbor survivor Dale Robinson.

His entry also included coverage of a shooting in Bridgeport and a humorous column on the myriad of problems experienced at the Wise County courthouse last year.

Judges commented that Evans' work showed "great range ... from hard news to features. Acme story was a nice way to mix news and a feature story. Good column on courthouse."

The Messenger also received first place awards in page design for the work of Todd Griffith and Keri Pritchard-Willerton, headline writing, community service for coverage of Wise County's first Habitat for Humanity House, sports photo by Joe Duty, column writing by former Messenger editor Skip Nichols, feature story by Evans and reporter Mandy Bourgeois and general excellence.

In general excellence, the judges said, "Entire paper is easy to read and informative.

"Great use of photos and graphics ... This paper is hard to beat."

The Messenger received second place awards in sports coverage by sports Editor Robert Morgan, news writing by Editor Brian Knox, editorials by Nichols and Knox and news and feature photos by Duty. Duty also won second place in photographer of the year.

The paper also took third place in column writing by Knox and fourth in advertising.

Knox was also elected to the North and East Texas Press Association's board of directors during the business meeting on Saturday.

Another Wise County newspaper, The Gazette in Alvord, also won awards in the medium-sized weekly division.

The Gazette won first place in editorials by Frank Knittel and special section, second place in advertising, third place in column writing by David Gregory and fourth place in page design and sports coverage.