The St. Louis American won 21 awards, including six first place awards, in Missouri Press Association’s 2012 Better Newspaper Contest. The awards were handed out this past weekend at the press association’s annual convention in Columbia, Mo.
First place awards received were: Best Online Newspaper or Website, Community Service, Best Coverage of Government, Best Coverage of Community/People/Lifestyles, Best Ad Idea or Promotion of an Advertiser and Best Business Story.
Regarding The St. Louis American’s website, stlamerican.com, judges comments stated “lots of local content. Easy to use site with a variety of content. Nice use of white space.” The American’s Website/IT Coordinator, Ishmael Sistrunk, was in Columbia to accept the award.
As far as the Best Coverage of Community/People/Lifestyles, judges stated The American had an “engaging writing style” with a “nice diversity of topics.” They stated The American had “thought-provoking opinion pieces” and that The American “does a thorough job of community coverage.”
The American’s Sandra Jordan received a first place award for Best Business Story, on her feature story about McClendon Teat Mortuary & Cremation Services. Judges stated “great use of the back story with fun quotes to draw the reader in. I was hooked from the lead on.”
The St. Louis American’s annual Salute to Excellence program received a first place award for Community Service. Judges stated the program was “definitely a boon to the community. The project obviously is an enormous undertaking and is done well.”
The Salute program (which consists of four annual public recognition events) has been recognized regionally, nationally and internationally, and this recent award marks the 12th time in the last nine years that The American has received a first place Community Service award by an industry association.
Other first place awards from Missouri Press this year include Best Coverage of Government (for The American’s extensive coverage of Aerotropolis), and Best Ad Idea or Promotion of an Advertiser (for its Money Wise Workshops, created by The American’s Barb Sills).
Second place awards were received for: Best Breaking News Story (Rebecca Rivas’ piece on the death of Washington University’s Dean Jim McLeod); Best Feature Photograph (Wiley Price’s Love 9/11); Best Story About Education (Rebecca Rivas’ College Prep piece); and Best Story About History (Kenya Vaughn’s 10 Years of Freedom Defined).
Third place awards received were: Best Front to Back Newspaper Design; Best Front Page (Mike Terhaar); Best Feature Photograph (Wiley Price’s Cub Scout photo); Best Sports Pages; Best Story About Rural Life or Agriculture (Rebecca Rivas’ Farming in Ferguson  piece); Best Story About Religion (Kenya Vaughn’s piece on Friendly Baptist Church); and Best Video (Rebecca Rivas’ Putting Down the Pistols).
Honorable Mention awards were received for Best News Photograph (Wiley Price’s R.I.P. Officer Hall); Best Sports Columnist (Mike Claiborne); Best Video (Rebecca Rivas’ video about Ferguson students learning to farm with Earthdance); and Best Editorial Cartoon (Kevin Belford’s drawing honoring Paul Reiter, The American’s longtime circulation manager, who was shot and killed last year).