The Daily Home newsroom, pressroom and advertising departments won more than two dozen awards in three state and regional newspaper contests.The news staff won 23 awards in the Alabama Associated Press Managing Editors contest while the pressroom won for print quality in the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association. The advertising department won two awards in the inaugural ad contest of the Alabama Press Association.
News winners
In the Associated Press contest, the newspaper won three of the most prestigious awards Community Service, Freedom of Information and Sportswriting Sweepstakes.
The news staff won Community Service for its work on Trashed or Treasured, the newspaper's annual series which this year dealt with beautification and environmental issues. Writers working on the project were: Tobe Boswell, Kyle Shelton, Patricia Douglas, Carol Pappas, June Winters, Laura Nation, David Atchison, Chris Norwood, Gary Hanner and Denise Sinclair. The series also picked up a first place award in the Non-Deadline News category.
Editor and Publisher Carol Pappas won the Freedom of Information category for an editorial exposing and criticizing the Talladega County Commission for a secret meeting.
It was the second year in a row for Sports Editor Scott Adamson to win the sweepstakes, which is the best story overall in the sports category for small dailies.
Adamson also won first and second place in Participatory Sports, honorable mention in Sports Feature and an honorable mention in Non-Deadline Sports Reporting. He teamed up with sportswriter Josh Johnson to win first place in Sports Deadline Reporting for their multi-page coverage of a day at the races at Talladega Superspeedway.
Lifestyle Editor Laura Nation won first place in the Lifestyle Features category and an honorable mention in the Headlines category.
Chief Photographer Bob Crisp won four first places Spot News, Photo Illustration, Sports Action and Sports Feature. He also won an honorable mention in the Sports Action category.
Special Projects Editor Jim Smothers won second place in Non-Deadline Page Design and honorable mention in Illustrations, while City Editor Graham Hadley won honorable mention in Deadline Page Design and News Graphics.
Photographer Jerry Martin earned an honorable mention in Portfolio and Portrait/Personality Photo.
The staff will be recognized in an awards ceremony at Gulf Shores May 19. Newspaper editors in Maryland and Delaware judged the contest.
Pressroom
The Daily Home Pressroom won second place in Print Quality for newspapers under 25,000 circulation in the South. It was the fourth year in a row for the crew to win the award.
Pressroom foreman is Donald Jones. Crew members are Richard Popham, Bennie Turner and Lanay Freeman.
Advertising
In the first year for the Alabama Press Association to hold a separate advertising contest, The Daily Home won two awards.
Faye Massey and Sandy Ponder won second place for a Miller Sutherlin car ad in the Best Single Ad half page and over, color, category.
Geraldine Osburn and the Classified Department won second place in Best Signature Page category for "Businesses from decades past to decades to come," which appeared in the newspaper's progress edition, Update 2000.
The awards will be presented in a special ceremony May 17 in Prattville.
