The editorial staff of HubCitySPOKES brought home 46 first-, second- and third-place awards from the Mississippi Press Association Better Newspaper Contest Saturday. This included the coveted General Excellence for both The Hattiesburg Post and The Lamar Times, as well as Photo of the Year. Signature Magazine was also named Best Magazine among all weekly publications.
The General Excellence awards were in two of the three weekly newspaper categories. The awards were in a variety of categories including writing, design and photography
The awards luncheon was held as part of this year’s joint Mississippi/Louisiana Press Association Convention at the Golden Nugget in Biloxi.
Judged by members of the Kentucky Press Association, 51 total newspapers, including 15 dailies and 36 weeklies entered 2,089 total entries (860 daily and 1229 weekly) in this year’s contest. This was the first year The Hattiesburg Post, which first published in October 2013, was eligible for competition.
The Photo of the Year was snapped by former staffer Zach Jones, who captured a photo of Hattiesburg artist/scuptor working on a new project. This was the second time for the staff to bring home this award. Photographer Matt Bush won in 2011 for his photo of then-Petal High School quarterback Anthony Alford diving into the endzone for a touchdown.
Othere awards included:
• Best General News Story (Buster Wolfe).
• Best Sports Feature (Alan Hinton).
• Best Game Story (Camal Petro).
• Best Feature Story (Nikki Smith).
• Best Spot News Photograph (Zach Jones).
• Best Sports Feature Photograph (James Pugh).
• Best Feature Photograph (Matt Bush).
• Best Feature Photograph (Zach Jones).
• Best Pictorial Series (Zach Jones).
• Best Graphic (David Gustafson).
• Best Front Page (Beth Bunch, Nikki Smith).
• Best Editorials (David Gustafson).
• Best Editorial Page (David Gustafson).
• Best Lifestyle Section (Beth Bunch).
• Best Headline (Beth Bunch, Nikki Smith).
• Best Lede (Zach Jones).
• Photo of the Year (Zach Jones).
• Best Magazine (Signature Magazine).
• General Excellence (The Lamar Times).
• General Excellence (The Hattiesburg Post).
“I am beyond proud of the entire staff,” said publisher David Gustafson. “I’m honored to work alongside these folks,” said Gustafson. “The staff at HubCitySPOKES puts in many, many hours of hard work and dedication to bring the best community news, sports, and opinion to the Pine Belt. I look forward to seeing what else we can do together.”
In addition to The Hattiesburg Post and The Lamar Times, HubCitySPOKES also publishes The Petal News, the Pine Belt Sports Magazine and other specialty publications throughout the year.
