DENVER — The Cortez Journal was recognized for its quality work at the Colorado Press Association's annual convention over the weekend.
The newspaper and cortezjournal.com won a variety of awards including the General Excellence honor, which goes to the top overall newspaper in its circulation category. The Journal was also recognized with the Advertising Sweepstakes award.
“I'm really proud of our staff,” said Suzy Meyer, Journal publisher. “The ad staff swept their class this year, and we did well enough in every other category — news, photo and design, and online — to bring home the General Excellence award.”
The Journal competes in the nondaily class for newspapers with circulation more than 4,000.
Overall, the Journal picked up 38 awards in the state's two contests, including 29 at Saturday's Colorado Press Association ceremony.
In winning the Advertising Sweepstakes awards, the Journal advertising department headed by Mark Drudge picked up 14 awards.
The new Cortez Journal website won a total of five awards including four first place awards.
At Friday night's Colorado Associated Press awards ceremony, Journal staff won a total of nine awards including a second place in the General Excellence category. The Journal's sister paper, The Durango Herald, claimed first place in the AP General Excellence category.
Photographer Sam Green won three AP awards, including a second place for spot news photo, and honorable mention for sports and feature photos.
Dale Shrull picked up a first place for business story for articles on local bookstores.
Earning second place awards were Meyer for editorial writing and former staffer Kimberly Benedict for reporter beat coverage for her reporting on local education issues.
Russell Smyth won honorable mention for news columns and headline writing.
The Associated Press does not have an advertising contest.
In the AP contest, the Journal competes with all AP-member Colorado newspapers with a circulation of 10,000, including the Herald.
The Dolores Star and Mancos Times each picked up two awards in the advertising division. The Star won first place for an automotive ad and a second place a real estate ad. The Times picked up a second place for automotive ad and third place for a real estate ad. The papers compete in the small weekly category.
The competition period for both contests was from Sept. 1, 2010, to Aug. 31, 2011.
JOURNAL WINNERS IN COLORADO PRESS ASSOCIATION CONTEST
FIRST PLACE AWARDS:
Russell Smyth, Agriculture Story
Kimberly Benedict, Sustained Coverage (Education)
Dale Shrull, Sports Event Story (Demolition Derby)
Sam Green, Photo Essay
Amanda Puett, Color Ad
Advertising staff — Real Estate Ad, Advertising Special Section, Newspaper Promotion, Website Content, Website Advertising, Website Design
SECOND PLACE AWARDS:
Sam Green and Kimberly Benedict, Story/picture combo (Fishing on the Dolores)
Dale Shrull, Sports Columns
Sam Green, Photo Essay
Michael Billy, Black and White Ad
Michael Billy, Small Space Ad
Michael Billy, Real Estate Ad
Ben King, Advertising Campaign
Sam Green and Dale Shrull, Website Community (Photo galleries)
THIRD PLACE AWARDS:
Suzy Meyer, Editorial Writing
Hope Nelson, Agriculture Story
Amanda Puett, Black and White Ad
Ben King, Automotive Ad
Ben King, Real Estate Ad
Ben King, Advertising Campaign
Staff, Advertising Special Section and Classified Section