Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: Preston-Fillmore County Journal Entry Title: Got it covered... Entry Credit: Jason Sethre, Ellen Whalen, Amanda Sethre Judge Comment: Bigger does not always mean better, but in this case, it does. when you have the advertising to support the number of pages this publication has, you have all the space you need to adequately cover a community. This paper has a wide variety of topics covered, and presented to the reader in a a pleasing manner. Loved the photographs. In my opinion, no competition here for first.
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: Burnsville/Eagan Sun Thisweek Entry Title: Sun Thisweek Burnsville-Eagan: General Reporting Entry Credit: John Gessner, Andy Rogers , Patty Dexter , Tad Johnson, Mike Shaughnessy Judge Comment: Second and third place were a tough call, but in the end, it was local copy, and copy written by reporters of this publication which was the deciding factor. Great job overall.
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: Blaine, Spring Lk Park, Columbia Hgt, Fridley Life Entry Title: Life General Reporting Entry Credit: Jonathan Young, Connor Cummiskey, Paige Kieffer, Patrick Slack, Emilee Wentland Judge Comment: Fantastic overall newspaper. Great subject matter, presented in a manner pleasing to the reader.
Competition Comment: For me, this contest was all about the content of the newspapers, and the way in which this information is presented to readers. I found that Minnesota has a plethora of talented writers, and these newspapers showcase their writer's talents. Being from a smaller newspaper, to me, local coverage is important with the smaller publications, with increasingly more state coverage as the circulation of each paper increased. To me, it is important that content is produced by in-house writers, which was the deciding factor as to whether a paper made the final cut or not. Overall, great representation from all publications.
