The Wright County Journal was recognized by other professionals in the newspaper industry this past weekend with four 2021 Better Newspaper Contest awards as presented by the Missouri Press Association. The awards were announced at the 155th Annual MPA Convention held Sep. 25 in Excelsior Springs.
The highest honor the publication received was a second place award given to publisher and now owner, Ron Schott, in the Tilghman Cloud Memorial Editorial category. His editorial entitled, “Extremely thankful for God’s intervention in a scary time,” received second place out of just four awards presented for Class 2 weekly publications.
Judges said, “Mr. Schott told a great story of how he almost lost his daughter on a canoeing trip, and how because of moments like these, we should cherish our loved ones because we never know how much time we have left with them.”
One of three third place awards received by the Wright County Journal went to both Schott and Cayleb Thomas for their design work in the Best Front Page category.
Judges said the Wright County Journal has a, “Good use of color palette, modular design and white space. Consistency is key to your look.”
Schott’s photo of barber Ethan Clark cutting longtime barber Dwain Murphy’s hair received a third place award for Best Feature Photograph.
Judges said, “Great picture, great angle, great timing!”
Finally, the Wright County Journal received a third place award for Schott’s story, “Giving the gift of life.” The story about a Mansfield teacher receiving a kidney transplant was the newspaper’s fourth overall award. No judges comments were provided.
Schott said he is grateful the publication was honored by his peers in the industry.
“During this past year, our publication went through a pandemic, a staff reduction, a merger of two publications resulting in a name change followed by an eventual ownership change,” Schott noted. “Through it all, our focus has been on providing quality local coverage for our readers, which results in a great platform for advertisers to use in marketing their business messages to potential customers. I am grateful that our industry peers chose to recognize some of our work with top awards on the state level. To God be the glory.”
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