Messenger falls to Spanish Fork in Better Newspaper Contest
3-12-08

ST. GEORGE—Good work, but no cigar.
The Sanpete Messenger received plaques or certificates in 16 out of 23 categories in the Utah Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest his year.
Nonetheless, the Spanish Fork News, a newspaper that has been publishing for about three years, edged out the Messenger for the coveted General Excellence Award at the association’s winter convention last weekend.
But the bigger news, perhaps, was North Sanpete High School, which debuted its school newspaper this year, taking second place in the high school Better Newspaper Contest. North Sanpete competed against high school papers from 1A, 2A and 3A schools throughout the state.
The Messenger played a big role in helping the newspaper, the N.S. Times get off the ground. Last summer, adviser Ben Cox spent several days per week for several weeks training in the Messenger office.
Messenger Assistant Editor Sean Hales has consulted with Cox about graphic design and software issues. And the Messenger has picked up the N.S. Times from the press in Richfield and inserted copies of the high school newspaper in Messenger newspapers going to the north county.
In the professional category, Hales took first in design in front pages, lifestyle pages and sports pages.
Managing Editor John Hales took firsts in breaking news (for coverage of the Salt Creek Fire) and continuing coverage (for his stories on the Gunnison gasoline leak).
Lifestyle columnist Cindy Beck took first place in feature columns, while Publisher Suzanne Dean took a first for a circulation promotion campaign she designed.
The Messenger also received recognition in feature stories, editorial writing, special sections, editor’s columns, news photographs, feature photographs and advertising.
Regarding the Messenger performance, Dean said, “We fell down a bit in categories where we are usually strong, such as best news story, best sports column and best photo page.
“But in the face of continually stiffer competition, we held our own and are motivated to produce even better work this year so we can win the top prize in 2009.”