In June, the staff of The St. Louis American celebrated its being named the �#1 African-American Newspaper in the Nation� by the National Newspaper Publishers� Association. This week, the staff is rejoicing once again.
Suburban Newspapers of America has just named The St. Louis American the #1 Weekly Newspaper, not just in the United States, but in all of North America.The American topped all large weekly newspapers in the United States and Canada with circulation of more than 37,500 for first place. (The American prints 70,000 copies each week). The American shares its first place honors with the “Oakville Beaver” of Oakville, Ontario, Canada.
Suburban Newspapers of America (SNA) is an industry organization comprised of more than 2,000 member newspapers. Members include some of the largest public and privately held newspaper companies in North America, such as: Black Press Ltd., Gatehouse Media, Inc., Journal Register Company, Metroland Media Group, Ltd., NY Times Regional Newspaper Group, Sun-Times News Group, and many more.
�This reconfirms what we�re trying to do here,� said St. Louis American Publisher Donald M. Suggs. �This recognition of the commitment of our dedicated, professional staff is quite heartwarming.�
This year�s SNA Newspaper of the Year contest was judged independently by Journalism Department faculty of Loyola University-Chicago, School of Communications.
Regarding first place award recipient, The St. Louis American, some of the judges� comments included �Respectful news content, covers happenings in the community.� Another judge commented �Beautiful, clean design, linear layout, attractive, lovely.� Another judge stated: �This is an example of a true community newspaper.�
�That�s what we�re all about,� Suggs said. �Local, local, local � hyper-local.�
Suggs proudly pointed to The St. Louis American�s close relationship with its readers.
�We�re thrilled that, on average, about 22 percent of our newspaper�s content is provided to us by our readers,� Suggs said.
�While many newspapers may disagree, and run a substantial amount of national content and syndicated copy, we want our readers� perspectives, interests and extensive interaction, visible, each and every week.�
The American was the only independently-owned newspaper to receive an award in the competition. Each of the other newspapers is owned by a media company which publishes at least 40 separate newspapers.
Second place awardee Abbotsford News is published by Black Press Ltd., based in British Columbia, Canada, which prints 170 daily and weekly newspapers and is Canada�s largest independent print media company.
Third place Bethesda/Chevy Chase Gazette is published by a division of the Washington Post Company which prints 42 weekly newspapers.
A big year
SNA�s �#1 Weekly Newspaper in North America� award follows another major award earlier in 2010, when The St. Louis American was named the �Nation�s #1 African-American Newspaper,� by the National Newspaper Publishers� Association (NNPA) in New York. NNPA is comprised of approximately 200 African-American publications. It marked the seventh time The American has been named the top black weekly by the NNPA.
SNA awards will be presented at the SNA convention in Philadelphia on Friday September 24, and awarded newspapers will be featured in an upcoming edition of Editor & Publisher magazine.