Havre Daily News takes awards at state

The Havre Daily News took home several major awards in the annual Better Newspaper Contest sponsored by the Montana Newspaper Association on Saturday.

The MNA annual convention was held in Lewistown over the weekend.

The Havre Daily News finished third in the Award for Excellence in the division that included the state's largest weekly and smaller daily newspapers.

The Havre Daily News finished behind the weekly Missoula Independent and the Flathead Beacon of Kalispell in the overall excellence competition.

The first-place award for best multi-sponsor ad went to Havre Daily News' advertising department.

The sports department took home several other prizes in the competition. They include:

• Sports Editor George Ferguson won a second place in the best sports feature category.
• Ferguson won honorable mention in the best sports story category.
• Ferguson took third place in best sports column.
• Photojournalist Nikki Carlson won third place in the best feature photo category.
• Carlson also won an honorable mention citation for the best news photo contest.
• Publisher Martin Cody won an honorable mention for a collection of editorials he wrote.
• Staff writer Zach White won second place in the best general feature category.
• Senior journalist Tim Leeds won second place in the agriculture issues category.
• Former staff writer Alice Campbell won third place in the same category.
• Advertising Director Stacy Mantle won a third-place award in the black-and-white ad category.
• The advertising department also won a second-place finish in the best multi-sponsored ad category.

"I'm very proud of the work we have done in the last 12 months to improve the paper," said Havre Daily News publisher Martin Cody. "It has been a team effort. It takes advertising, circulation and production as well as news to make a good newspaper."

Several other area newspapers won awards at the ceremonies for which CBS newsman Barry Petersen, a graduate of Sidney High School, was the keynote speaker.

In the division set aside for the state's largest newspapers, the Great Falls Tribune won first place in governmental issues and first place in agricultural issues. The Tribune staff also was honored with a first-place award in the health, fitness, medicine and science issues. They were also cited in the public service journalism category and best sports pages.

They won second place in the best editorial, justice system issues, education issues, best lifestyles, and writing excellence categories.

The Tribune won third-place citations in the following categories: best graphics, agriculture issues, best graphics and best web project.

The Tribune won third place for special projects, best color ads and first place for best house ad.

Other Hi-Line newspapers also did well:

• The Liberty County Times of Chester won first place in best sports photo, general excellence-advertising and best small-space ad. The Times won second place for justice systems issues and sports columns and third place for best local column and best nature photos.
• The Glasgow Courier won first place for best niche publication, first and second in best headlines, honorable mention in local government reporting, second in best columns, best graphics, best feature photos, third in general advertising excellence and honorable mention in general advertising excellence.
• The Philips County News of Malta won honorable mention in best health, fitness medicine and science issues. It also won honorable mention in best photo essay.
• Fort Benton's River Press took first place in special projects, second in best photo, first place and honorable mention in best outdoors photo and second in best multi-sponsor ads.