Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: Alexandria - The Echo Press Entry Title: General Reporting Entry Credit: Echo Press Judge Comment: The Echo Press shows good news judgment in its pages. The photography is pleasing. Sports were presented well. One thing I would say is, if you have enough pages to put the paper in two sections, do so.
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: Minneapolis - Southwest Journal Entry Title: General Reporting for Southwest Journal Entry Credit: Zac Farber, Nate Gotlieb, Andrew Hazzard, Michelle Bruch, Dylan Thomas Judge Comment: This was the best of the suburban tabloids in the competition. The writing was sharp and the photography was very good. When the food and art and architecture offerings are decent, most judges should be able to overlook traditional newspaper offerings, such as sports.
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: Little Falls - Morrison County Record Entry Title: General Reporting Entry Credit: MCR News Staff Judge Comment: This Record is chock full of news. It was not the prettiest in the competition — in fact, it was quite gray — but it does publish a lot of stories. It probably takes a week to read it!
Competition Comment: This circulation group was all over the map. Some papers were very solid, others, not so much. One thing that stood out, and it had nothing to do with editorial content, was that most of these papers had strong advertising content, which means the business community must stand by the newspapers, which is a reflection of content.
