Daily Times wins 17 newspaper awards

Monday, February 12, 2007 12:37 PM CST

The Watertown Daily Times won six first place awards and 17 overall at the annual Wisconsin Newspaper Association Better Newspaper Contest over the weekend.

The awards were announced Friday evening at the awards program at the Kalahari Resort and Convention Center in Lake Delton.

The Times won first place awards for lifestyle pages, photo essay, all-around newspaper photography, best advertising idea, best use of color and best use of local photography.

Second place awards were presented for sports photo, feature page design, best newspaper promotions and best circulation promotions, and third place awards for sports news story, spot news photo, feature photo, overall page design, best special section, best use of art service and best newspaper promotion.

Margaret Krueger, Adam Tobias and Teresa Stowell were jointly honored with a first place award for their contributions to the lifestyle pages of the paper. Judges said “Great photography, well written articles. Variety of topics with broad appeal.” As a sample, the judges pointed to a full page layout titled “Climber summits Kilimanjaro.”

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John Hart's photo essay titled “Gathering Time” about the Dodge County Fair was awarded first place in that category. Judges said, “The main photo is very strong, which holds the whole essay together. The combination of other photos fills in the details and completes the story. The technical aspects were handled well.”

Judges also awarded a first place for all around photography and other staff members, and said, “good design on fronts and nice use of photo packages. Section two fronts looked great. Nice use of feature photos throughout the inside of A section and sports had well edited photos.”

A full page color ad announcing the upcoming opening of Domani Salon and Spa garnered two first place awards. One was for best use of color by Mark Heiden and John Hart, and the other was for John Hart for best use of photography in that ad.

Judges in those two categories said the ad was “Clean, eye-catching, nice use of white space. Clear cut above the rest,” and “The first thought was these were hard working gals! You got the message across!”

Heiden also received a first place award for best ad idea in a series for ads on behalf of Hady Electric. Judges said, “Clear and consistent safety message. Good use of color.”

Adam Burdsall won a second award for a photo titled “Lakeside Upends Elkhorn.” Judges said, “Great capture of the emotion of celebration. We loved it!”

A second award was presented to Heidi Schwoch for a page design feature on Brett Favre and the Packers. Judges said, “Elements tie together nicely. We liked the #4 as a background and glad one can still read the type on top.”

Former Daily Times staff member Katie Schubert took a second in best newspaper promotion which was a newspaper self-promotion. Judges said, “Cheesy humor but you can bet everyone in town read it.” Schubert also won a third place award for the promotional series titled “Where do you read yours,” for which the judges said, “Catchy title, humorous photos.”

The Times also received a number of third place awards. Kevin Wilson won a third for a sports news story titled “Perkins captures state title.” Judges said, “Great lead and flow to story.” John Hart won a third for a spot news photo titled “Jefferson Home” and a third for a feature photo titled “Nature provides the halo.” On the latter photo judges said, “Simple in its beauty ... perfect picture at perfect time.” Heidi Schwoch took a third for overall page design.

The other third place award was presented for the paper's Health and Prosperity section. Judges said, “Very appealing cover, consistent and professional design. Very original idea.”

The 17 awards the paper received is one of the highest totals in decades, according to Managing Editor Tom Schultz. He said, “Being recognized by our peers is always nice, but we also recognize judging is subjective and that means many other projects our staff offered in the program were excellent as well.”

Kevin Clifford, general manager, said, “We're proud of our entire staff. The individuals who were honored this year did some excellent work for our paper and our readers. But, it's not just the award winners. We have a talented staff of professionals, from front office to production. Together they make it possible for the Daily Times to receive all of these honors.”

Also at the statewide convention, Schultz was elected second vice president of the organization.