WESTSIDE — The Westside Eagle Observer won 10 awards and received another five honorable mentions at the Arkansas Press Association convention in Little Rock on Saturday.
The Eagle Observer competed with other mid-sized weekly newspapers from across the state in the annual editorial contest.
The combined newspaper, which covers Decatur, Gentry and Gravette, took second place in general excellence and received an honorable mention for its community coverage.
In addition to those awards, the paper received three first-place awards, three secondplace awards and three third-place awards.
The first-place awards were for single feature photograph, a photo page and for best sports page. Other awards were for news photograph, feature story, humorouscolumn, sports action photograph, coverage of business/agriculture and coverage of tourism. Awards were won by each of the Eagle Observer reporters and photographers and made possible through the combined efforts of all on the staff.
The Arkansas entries were judged by members of the Kentucky Press Association. There were 1,070 entries from 31 weekly newspapers.
“While our continuing focus is on best serving our readers in Gentry, Gravette, Decatur and the surrounding areas, it’s nice to have such positive feedback from other professional journalists,” said Randy Moll, managing editor of the Eagle Observer.
“It lets us know that we’re doing things right, and it’s an encouragement for our staff members to continue their hard work and do their best to provide excellent local news coverage on the west side of Benton County,” Moll said.
News, Pages 5 on 07/04/2012