Advertising Excellence ( 10,000 and Over Dailies)Back
Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: Duluth News Tribune Entry Title: Duluth News Tribune Advertising Excellence Entry Credit: Megan Keller Judge Comment: Overall a very attractively laid out paper with great use of color throughout. Not all papers have the capability of color on all pages but the Duluth News Tribune has utilized their capabilities to the fullest extent. *Very eye appealing and easy to read/continuous eye flow of ads anchoring bottom half of pages/edit and photo content on upper half. A+ for this visual mix. *Great use of color and graphics on Classifieds and Business Directory pages. Makes them stand out and generates reader interest. *Lots of full-page advertisers when many advertisers no longer utilize this ad size. *Great Sunday preprint wrap. Good use of variety of advertisers to cover costs of the wrap. *Good mix of local and regional advertisers indicates that the readers are supporting the local businesses who advertise. *Nice use of Saturday Open Houses Realtor listings with a revenue category which has all but moved to digital promotion.
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: Grand Forks Herald Entry Title: Advertising Excellence,11/23/19, 12/11/19, 3/18/20 Entry Credit: Staff Judge Comment: Overall great layout and use of color throughout the papers submitted. *Great use of a premium ad position with the 2-column, full-page length 4C ad on the outer edge of page 2A. I haven't seen this before and hope it is an in-demand position / revenue generator. *Good mix of local and regional advertisers shows the readers are engaged with the paper and support the local businesses who advertise. *Very nice mix of Service Directory and Classified Ads. Bold, colorful with variable sizes catches the eye and keeps the reader engaged.
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: Rochester - Post-Bulletin Entry Title: Rochester Post Bulletin Entry Credit: Staff Judge Comment: Good overall use of color and ad placement throughout the copies submitted. *Nice mix of local and regional advertisers. Demonstrates that the readers are engaged with the print product and support their local businesses. *Good to see full and 1/2 4C ads throughout. These are no longer standard ad sizes for many advertisers so the number of these sizes plus vaireyt of advertisers is good to see. *I like the use of the large 4C box ad in upper right corner of page A1. Eye-catching. Appears to be an oversided Post-it-Note.
Competition Comment: This has been a nice mix of newspaper submissions. I recognize that not all newspapers have the capability to print color on all or most pages and those restrictions were considered in my judging. The first, second and third placed newspapers have done a great job of page layout, evenly mixing advertising with editorial content. As well as their use of color, graphics and variable sizes to keep the reader engaged from the editorial into the Classified and Business Directory pages.
An FYI is to look at each page of each paper submitted before sending them for future judging contests, One of the papers had an Opinion page which was partially printed, distracting from the overall look of that edition's section. The paper wasn't penalized in my judging for this but we all want our products to be the best representations of what we do every day.
