Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: Windom - Cottonwood County Citizen Entry Title: General Excellence Entry Credit: Citizen Staff Judge Comment: The Cottonwood County Citizen has it all. The news coverage was solid throughout, the advertisements look great in both display and classifieds, the photos make sense, and their play on the page work wonderful. The Opinion page is well put-together with plenty of local columns from staff. Overall, this is a very well put together newspaper.
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: Peqout Lakes | Pineandlakes Echo Journal Entry Title: General Excellence Entry Credit: Echo Journal Staff Judge Comment: The Pine and Lakes Echo Journal has really good, quality coverage and the advertising, especially the classifieds, was easy to navigate. The overall appearance is very clean. The photos were excellent, and the Echo Journal knows how to play up eye-catching photos. What proved to be the difference was the Opinion page. It took a bit to determine exactly if the columnists were local or had a local slant.
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: Blooming Prairie Steele County Times Entry Title: General Excellence Entry Credit: Staff Judge Comment: The Steele County Times did an excellent job in its entries, and the play it gave to a devastating fire in Blooming Prairie was spot on. As much it is good to have good news on Christmas, an update on a murder trial may have needed to the front page. The advertising was easy to read, but the classifieds were a bit hard to read. There is a solid Opinion page, and it's something to hang their hat on and proves to be an example for others.
Competition Comment: The 20 entries were whittled down to a handful of real strong potential publications. The Pope County Tribune and Waconia Patriot were two entries that showed they each have what it takes to make this a very competitive category, and our editorial staff discussed those top five in the category. This was a very competitive to judge.
