The Lake Sun received a half-dozen peer awards recently in the Missouri Press Association Better Newspaper contest.
The Lake Sun staff earned a first place award for best news content in the small daily newspaper division. Two date periods from 2007 were selected by the press association and entrants selected a third issue.
“Good balance of news and well written,” contest judges wrote.
The staff also was awarded third place for general excellence.
“On pure volume, we had to award third place to the Lake Sun. It has it all,” judges wrote.
Second place in Best Feature Story was presented to Joyce L. Miller for her story on Eldon’s mini-carousel maker closing its doors.
“Interesting topic and unique. We see those mini-carousels all the time, but don’t know much about them. This tells their story and the story of those who made them,” judges wrote.
Charis Patires receive a third-place award in Best Coverage of Young People for her story “Mirrored Movement” about a teenage martial arts instructor and her autistic student.
“Good lead and excellent use of quotes. Photos also added a lot to tell the story. Good way to show a teen doing something productive and showing her unselfish side. I like that you showed the benefits that both Kyle and Suzanna received,” judges wrote.
In this single-division category, the Columbia Daily Tribune took first and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch took second place.
The Lake Sun also received a second place award for “Mennonite persecution must stop” in the Best Editorial category in the small daily newspaper division.
“This is a succinct and well-written edit with a strong kicker as an ending. You raise a concern and look out for part of your readership, bringing to light a problem government officials may not realize,” judges wrote.
Third place was awarded to the Lake Sun for Best Editorial Pages.
“Local edits and columns make this page. Having a locally written edit every day is a real plus. While one of the edits was not on a very crucial issue, all were on topics of local interest. Columns from publisher and editor help carry one page and columns for the local politicians help carry another day and give readers plenty of local topics to read about,” judges wrote.
In this category, the press association selected two date periods to submit entries from with an open third entry.
“While the peer awards are flattering as a reflection of what all of us try to attain on a daily basis, we get the most reward from readers telling us what worked and what didn’t,” Lake Sun editor David Schiefelbein said.
“We have a staff dedicated to quality and I think their effort is demonstrated on a daily basis,” he said. “We will continue our committent to bring readers the balance of news they have told us they like to read.”