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(THOMAS WALLNER | THE GRAHAM LEADER) The Graham Leader won five first place awards, two second place awards and two fourth place awards at the Texas Press Association’s Texas Better Newspaper Contest. Among those awards was the top prize – the Division 4 Sweepstakes award.
It was a banner year for The Graham Leader in the Texas Press Association’s Texas Better Newspaper Contest, coming home with nine awards including the top prize – the Division 4 Sweepstakes award.
The awards were announced Saturday, June 21 during the Texas Better Newspaper Contest Awards Banquet at the TPA Convention and Trade Show in Denton. Entries were judged by members of the Kansas Press Association.
The 2024 contest featured 17 categories, with 108 newspapers submitting 1,021 entries in the contest. Competitions were divided into divisions in which newspapers compete against publications of similar circulation.
The Leader was included in Division 4, which with Division 3 had 24 semiweekly newspapers competing.
In Sweepstakes for Division 4 Semiweeklies, The Leader was first.
In the Sweepstakes category, awards are presented in all nine circulation divisions and broken up into two separate divisions.
Sweepstakes awards are earned by the point accumulation in the 12 sweepstakes categories which are Advertising, Column Writing, Editorial Writing, Feature Photography, Feature Writing, General Excellence, Headline Writing, News Photography, News Writing, Page Design, Sports Coverage and Sports Photography.
A total of five first place awards were presented to The Leader for Advertising, General Excellence, Headline Writing, News Photography and Sports Coverage.
For the first place Advertising category, entries were submitted from the Hometown Heroes special section, Bailey Pippin Memorial 5K Run and Skeet Shoot and Graham ISD bond. The judges noted good use of color, organization and presentation for the ads.
The General Excellence category requires newspapers to submit two complete editions to be judged.
“Beautiful layout. Clean lines, striking photos, attractive fonts,” the contest judge said. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a front page without ads. At first I thought it was old-fashioned, but I appreciate how ‘newsy’ the paper feels. Can’t seem to see how someone could be an informed member of the community without this paper.”
For the News Photography category, the judges gave praise to the photos entered as well as the cutlines and layout of the photos on the page.
The Sports Coverage category is two sports sections submitted in their entirety that are judged as one entry. The Leader submitted entries that covered a wide range of sports such as tennis, cross country, volleyball and football.
“Comprehensive and in-depth coverage of Graham High School sports, supplemented by expert photography and timely game recaps,” the contest judge said. “The player-of-the-week notices are also a good way to build engagement and good will with readers. You rarely see time and attention paid to junior high sports, so what a thrill for those young athletes being covered.”
Along with the first place and Sweepstakes awards, The Leader also received second place awards from Feature Writing and Page Design and fourth place awards for Special Section and News Writing.
Publisher Kylie Bailey recognized the staff and community for making the awards possible.
“I am so proud that the hard work all our staff does each day has been recognized on a larger scale. We could not have accomplished this without our advertisers and subscribers,” Bailey said. “As the oldest business in Young County, we are honored to serve this community and will be bringing home more awards for our supporters to be proud of.”
