Your TIMES wins awards at state newspaper meet
OKLAHOMA CITY — Your TIMES earned four awards Saturday when the Oklahoma Press Association presented its Better Newspaper Contest awards during the association’s annual convention held this year at the Sheraton Oklahoma City Downtown Hotel.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Your TIMES earned four awards Saturday when the Oklahoma Press Association presented its Better Newspaper Contest awards during the association’s annual convention held this year at the Sheraton Oklahoma City Downtown Hotel.
Your TIMES earned three second-place and a thirdplace award in competition with other semi- and tri-weekly newspapers from throughout the state in categories that determined the winner of the 2023 Sequoyah Award, the highest honor in the Better Newspaper Contest.
Members of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association judged entries in nine categories recognizing newspapers as a whole, as well as 14 categories recognizing individuals.
Your TIMES took home second-place awards for layout and design, news content, and sales promotion, as well as a third-place finish for editorial writing. In garnering recognition for layout and design, judges praised “bold designs with effective … cutout and headline,” and cited photo quality.
For news content, the judges lauded the “nice effort to match the moment on breaking news” related to the February 2023 skydiving death and the May 2023 heroics by Sallisaw police officers to prevent vehicular carnage at the Diamond Daze festival.
The “Sallisaw pictorial history 1888-2023” commemorative book was praised for having “very impressive design and a great variety of photos.”
Your TIMES received a third-place award for editorial writing, with judges singling out entries as “well written pieces,” and had special praise for an editorial regarding the city contemplating selling the municipal landfill, and noted that pieces on journalist death threats at the McCurtain Gazette-News and whether report cards reflect on teachers or parents were “persuasive.”
Individually, Your TIMES staff writer Lynn Adams earned 10 awards.
Lynn Adams
Adams won first place for feature writing, business writing, education writing, column writing, in-depth reporting and frontpage design. It was the second consecutive year that he earned top honors for feature writing, in-depth reporting and education writing, and the second year in a row for him to finish first and second for feature writing and education writing. A year ago, he finished second for business writing and column writing, before being elevated to the top rung this year.
For his feature story about Billy Wood retiring from Your TIMES after 60 years, the judges said of Adams’ work: “Skillful storytelling tells multiple tales — one man’s career, the history of a newspaper and the printing industry itself — while weaving in an old-timer’s words of wisdom. Made me want to sit with Billy Wood for an hour or two.”
Adams’ education story asking what schools are doing about bullying was praised as a “timely, wellwritten story about an issue of great importance, not only in our schools but also in society.”
For Adams’ in-depth reporting about the proposed sale of the municipal landfill, the judges hailed reporting on the six-month saga as an “excellent example of how a local journalist becomes a true authority on a matter of local importance, and can become the source residents rely on.”
Adams was the top recipient for a business story about Cookson Hills Connect beginning its Phase 2 fiber optics plan, and took top honors for his column writing submissions ranging from death threats toward journalists, responsibilities of teachers as well as parents in education, and his two wedding anniversaries he and his wife celebrate.
A first-place award for front-page design was presented to Adams, Amie Remer, Leslie Mendoza and Jan Herod.
Adams placed second for his Veterans Day feature story about World War II veteran Jack Hilderbrand, which judges said was “well done. Extensive use of quotes and vivid detail of the subject’s recollections made this a riveting story.”
For his education story analyzing annual report cards for county schools which show room for improvement, the judges called it “a well-written article that gives excellent context to an issue of great significance to the community.”
Third-place recognition in editorial writing was given for opinion pieces on journalist death threats at the McCurtain Gazette-News and whether report cards reflect on teachers or parents, as well as a thirdplace award for front-page design for Adams, Mendoza and Remer.
Other semi- and tri-weekly newspapers against which Your TIMES competed included those from Claremore, Duncan, El Reno, Elk City, Henryetta, Oklahoma City, Okmulgee, Poteau, Shawnee, Tishomingo, Woodward and Yukon.
The Vian Tenkiller News finished first in sports coverage, second in community leadership and third in news content.
Other newspapers in the Cookson Hills Publishers family earning recognition were the McIntosh County Democrat, which finished first in sales promotion, second in sports coverage and third in advertising, and the Stigler News-Sentinel, which finished third in both photography and sales promotion.
