News-Record.com

Sports writing
1st place -- Robert Bell
Comments of Doug Roberson, sports editor of The Daily Press in Newport News, Va. -- The cleverness in how details are given, and how they seem to be so judiciously used, draws the reader in: "He keeps his words short and sweet - like his jabs" "They fall gently over Pinehurst No. 2, like so many pine needles, covering spectators and players alike" "Down from the Indigo sky. Down toward people looking up." The reporting is what makes Robert Bell's writing stand out.

Colors, actions, the "why didn't I notice that" moment that he reports in his stories make them a pleasure to read and give the reader something to anticipate from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph. The stories he chooses to tell aren't well-known, and he does a wonderful job giving people a reason to get know these areas of their community that they probably didn't know existed: the unknown boxer, the poor town just outside of the golf capital of the world, the simple foul ball. While he can tend to lean on his skill as a writer to make up for a lack of reporting on occasion, the thought and effort are obvious in the results.

2nd place -- Dustin Long
Roberson's comments -- Dustin's expertise is obvious in every story he writes. The reader trusts him because he writes with an authority and an eye for context that are hard to match. He's especially adept at making sense of the action in a sport that can be hard to follow, and even harder to describe. Dustin isn't afraid to experiment with different types of story-telling, which is a nice surprise for the reader.

News writing
1st place -- Eric Collins
Comments of Jim Lefco, sports editor of the Indianapolis Star -- Full body of work was clearly the best among the entries. Writer found abundance of compelling stories, and enhanced them with his superb storytelling skills. His engaging writing style draws the reader in quickly. His best work shows superior reporting skills too.

Narrative style in family bank robbery story was effective. Forgiveness story was extremely powerful. Excellent reporting in judge piece. Quran story raises interesting point, one to which I was previously unaware.

Rapist story was best in bunch. Reporter's work in developing trust with the victim paid off in a powerful story. It's a gripping read that brings home her ordeal in great detail. Crafted nicely by the author. Obstacles he overcame to get this one made it even more memorable. Great initiative by the reporter.

2nd place -- Jim Schlosser
Lefco's comments -- Homeless story was one of my favorites among all entries. Reporter obviously spent a great deal of time observing folks at all hours for this piece. Behind the scenes glimpse makes us care even more about his subject.

Demolished dreams story was a nice piece of journalism. Everyone knows of neighborhood disagreements, but this one took that to another level. Reporter took you into the spat and made you care about what happened. Good balance. Can see both sides of the issue.

Reporter does a great job of getting reader to relate to his subjects in every story. Humanity is the theme of his work and reporter really delivers. He artfully weaves in lots of interesting tidbits and details on girl/coma story. I find myself caring about his sources, and enjoying their successes, such as the Norfolk Southern employee who saved the girl's life, and the woman who ran the diner that was closing. I even cared about the building that was demolished because of the facility with which he handled the topic.

Feature writing
1st place -- Maria Johnson
Comments of Aly Colon of Poynter Institute -- Johnson uses crisp language. Her vivid descriptions create compelling profiles. She writes taut sentences. They capture courage. They show struggles. They offer humor. Her stories demonstrate the value of rhythm and repetition. Her quotes sound authentic. And they advance the story. Her words reflect the people she profiles. In one instance, her punchy, jabbing sentences mirror the boxing style of her subject.

2nd place -- Nancy McLaughlin
Colon's comments -- McLaughlin shows an eye for detail. She demonstrates an ear for powerful quotes. She offers readers storytelling that is intimate and emotional. Her columns reflect an honesty, openness and vulnerability. Her profiles explore people's faith and relationship with God in a straightforward, candid manner with which readers can relate.

Page design
1st place -- Melissa Umbarger
Comments of Julie Elman, assistant professor in the School of Visual Communication at Ohio University in Athens -- When looking at this portfolio, I immediately sense that this designer focuses on content first and the allows the design elements to reflect that, in terms of the stories' tone and mood. Throughout the pages photographs are played well, and in many cases, quite boldly. There's a clear sense of visual dominance on many pages, including "Older Bikers Find Riding Rough," "Machine in Tune" and "A Day at the Park." The "Cashing in" series has impact through a simple and clean presentation: an excellent layering of information and clear points of entry into each chunk of info help the reader navigate through the packages.

In general, white space and typography are handled well on each page and have the right amount of scale, depending upon the other visual elements on the page. My favorite pages of the bunch: "A Day at the Park," "The First Six Days" and "Rehnquist Dies." The park page showcases the intense lead photo quite well and organizes a lot of info through the doubletruck. The Katrina page has a variety of images that illustrate the horrible scenes from that week, and everything on the page centers around one of the most moving images I've seen from that event. The Rehnquist page shows how versatile this designer is. The page, which I realize was redone in an amazingly short time and under stressful conditions (I imagine) remains clean and solves the visual problems of the night.

2nd place -- Doug Harris
Elman's comments -- The strong use of photography on these pages is supported by the designer's skillful touch with white space and typography. The big words on each page are as powerful as the images, in terms of scale, and that adds up to to pages with punch. But, the impact of many of these pages is not just about six-column photos -- the visual weight everywhere is distributed well across each page, helping the reader's eye move through the stories.

On a couple of pages, less is more: "Eyes on the Prize" and "Campaign 2005: Men's ACC Tournament." There's just enough info on each page to carry forward the message. This designer knows when to practice restraint and not overdo it when it may be tempting to pour on the design elements. "The Top 10" is smart, eye-catching and doesn't give off the feeling at all that the designer was in "Design Hell" (his words!). Having been in Design Hell myself many times, I can appreciate that unsettling, on-the-fly feeling. The bottom line here, though, is that the page works, and the readers wins. The images hang together well and their order is clearly marked, resulting in a real treat for NASCAR fans.

Copy editing
1st place -- Christy Banks Seals
Comments of Dan Balcar, news editor of the San Antonio Express-News --
Headlines are interesting and many are good turns of a phrase. Explanation of deadline handling of package while computer problems abounded really brings it home to those with similar experiences.

Get the patty wagon: Excellent headline that matches the story's tone. It is hard to find a crime story that deserves a fun headline, but this one works. Not just a clever turn of a phrase, but smart usage.

Bit early, Santa? Nice headline that draws readers in. This is one case where a question headline works better than saying Santa's a bit early.

Got lots of worry? This is a question head that didn't work for me. The lots of worry makes me think there is a problem here, when the story explains how they are overcoming the holiday rush. A better headline might have been Lots of solutions.

This ain't good, y'all. Excellent headline that sets the tone with imagery that foretells what the story is about. Ain’t nothing wrong with that.

A storm of emotion: A nice attempt, but slightly off point. The headline could have been improved with a little more work, like adding an active word. What the story is really about isn't the storm of emotion as much as being overcome by a storm of emotion.

Goodness and Light: Another excellent headline. Taking a familiar phrase and making it work without straining seems to be your forte.

A field out of favor: Another good headline that immediately sets the tone. The photo overline wasn't on point with this story, but I assume it was part of a series logo.

Big bucks on this fight: This was a good headline spoiled by the exclamation point. Don't add unnecessary punctuation, the photo and headline are dramatic enough.

You want ring tones with that? This headline works because of the McDonald's logo with the graphic. There are times when all the elements help the headline writer, and this is one of them.

Hey, scum: I liked this package of headlines, but think they would have worked better had they been reversed. Better step aside, seems to fit the photo more than the story and scum meeting its match fits the story more than the photo. Try flopping the headlines and see if you don't agree. It also works better with the drop head. But a nice combo nonetheless.

Bloom and doom: Nice headline that really works with the photo. You do an excellent job of tying elements together.

Cleaning up the mess: Boy do I sympathize with your explanation. Any copy editor would feel your pain. You had to do a lot of work in a short time, I bet your slot was yelling and you were sweating.

2nd place -- Emily Burch Harris
Balcar's comments -- Excellent use of all the tools at her disposal. Well-rounded copy editor who is solid in all areas and skills.

Lost in translation: This is a real grabber and is right on point. The subtlety of it being a Japanese story makes it even more apropos. The drop is a little stilted from trying not to repeat Japanese. Since it is in the Business section, perhaps changing Japanese currency to yen would have allowed the use of Japanese companies, sted Japan's.

What's in a name: I like the use of fonts in the rail to set off the companies from the stadiums. It is an effective device beyond what the words say. The drop head kind of lost me because as I read it I expected clubs and companies' to both be either plural or plural possessive. Perhaps saying names of companies to the fans would have read easier.

Book develops the history: This headline works on many levels, a sure home run.

Not so rosy: I don't think this works as well because the focus of the story is on getting customers to find alternatives to the order takers to make it more profitable to the florists. When I hear rosy, I am thinking about rosy outlook, not something based on empirical data. The headline made me think the outlook was bleak, but the story really focuses on how the florist can become more profitable by skipping the order taker, I might be a little critical on this headline, but it just seems like it is too easy to use rosy.

Love defined: Excellent catches. You do that voodoo that good copy editors do so well. General knowledge of a lot of minutiae is where it’s at. Nice tightening to rest of story and catching the subject-verb agreement. this "writer" owes you a margarita for your improvements.

Waste watchers: This is an excellent example of addition by subtraction. You made the story more concise, transplanted some of the trimmed elements into the cutlines. This is a better story for not having made the reader jump to read superfluous material.

Three Ws: This was a nice try but assumes the readers know what the three Ws are. Instead of saying Internet, it would have been better to say World Wide Web up high in the story. The World Wide Web is only a part of the Internet, but for this head to work you have to explain WWW somewhere up high.

Has beer tapped out?: This headline works on many levels. It is clever, accurate and smart. And it fits the illustration. Nice work.

Foiled fall: Another excellent headline that works on many levels. The kicker immediately sets up what the story is about.

In Bedrock: I think the headline works because of the lead, but I think I would explained I the cutline what the artwork was. The photo is pretty small and the slash makes it hard to read that it is Wilma Flintstone in the artwork. I would have avoided using Wilma in the drophead, it is kind of heading the reader over the head with the obvious.

Undressed code: I like the Undressed code kicker. Nice word play.

You think your dog: I am not a fan of question heads and I think there was better head out there for such a cute photo. (I have a well-behaved Lab too).

Graphics
1st place -- Doug Cox
Comments from Richard Curtis, managing editor for graphics & photography, USA Today -- We were impressed by the range of his talent and skills, from engaging illustrations such as "Smokers Quitting" to a collection of small illustrations about perennials for your garden. His piece on "A nation off the tracks" displayed a strong concept that was intellectually stimulating, and illustrated in a sophisticated style. His illustration for the cover of the Go Triad tabloid, "What is rock 'em, sock 'em salsa," was an evocative illustration compelling to our judges.

Photo
1st place -- Kim Walker
Comments from David Banks, staff photographer Daily Southtown/Chicago Sun-Times News Group -- It was a hard decision because of all of the strong photos in all three of the portfolios. If the contest was broken down into individual categories, sports, features, news, etc all three would have won first places in some categories. What set Kim's portfolio apart was the picture story about the Mexican workers. It was beautifully photographed with passion, dedication, and strong composition. I could feel that she really cared about the subjects that she photographed. Congratulations to the News & Record for having such talented photojournalists.

Rugaber Prize
Winner -- Ben Villarreal
The prize is awarded to the staff member whose work in the past 12 months has displayed, day in and day out, an intense curiosity, a depth of understanding, and an enterprising drive to discover unique and significant stories. The judges are me, Managing Editor Ann Morris, Editorial Page Editor Allen Johnson and Publisher Robin Saul.
My comment -- Ben is our design guru. He led the paper's redesign, a major project that has immensely improved our look and readability.