The Albert Lea Tribune was recognized Thursday with five awards for journalism excellence.

At the annual Minnesota Newspapers Association convention in the Twin Cities, awards were given to newspapers statewide. In some categories, the Tribune competes against daily newspapers its size, and in other categories it goes up against dailies five, six, eight times its size.

The competition is called the Minnesota Newspapers Association Better Newspapers Contest.

The Tribune won first place for Editorial Page as a Whole. It is the second year in a row for the newspaper to win that distinction. It competes against daily newspapers less than 10,000 in circulation.

“The MNA tells you what dates to enter. I was shocked when we won because I felt the dates we had to enter weren’t as strong as the previous year. They were OK, but not as strong,” said Tribune Managing Editor Tim Engstrom, who handles day-to-day editorial page duties. “To win again, shows that we really care about getting an array of opinions on the page.”

In fact, the judges said: “There was a nice variety of content on these editorial pages, and it was nice to see mostly local columnists and content. The presentation was well-designed and easy to read.”

Creative Director Stacey Bahr won second place in the category of Best Institutional Advertisement for an ad she designed for Shoff Chiropractic.

“The ad is very appealing,” the judge said. “Good placement of client information. Layout and design is crisp and clean and colors blend well together. The message is plain even before reading. Great use of clip art. Well done ad.”

Bahr’s entry competed against entries from dailies of any size.

Reporter Sarah Stultz won second place in Best Social Issues Feature Story for a three-part series she did on housing in Albert Lea. The series was called “Rental Housing in Albert Lea” and the headline of the first part was “Where is the landlord?” The series showed many viewpoints in the housing debate the Albert Lea community had in 2008.

Her entry went up against dailies up to 16,000 circulation.

The judge wrote: “This was a nice series and a great example of how an item from a council meeting can be expanded to show community members how city business can hit home.”

Brie Cohen, who does photography, online multimedia and page layout at the Tribune, won two second-place awards in categories that require competition against all dailies.

One was in Best Photo Story for a compelling piece called “Bridget’s Journey” about Bridget Saxton of Lake Mills, Iowa, a girl who suffered from a rare disease. The photo story documented her struggle to walk again.

“Nicely done,” the judge wrote. “You captured the struggle, pain and joy of the lives featured in your story.”

Her other award was in Best Multimedia Special Project for a multimedia audio slideshow Cohen made for “Bridget’s Journey.”

Bridget’s Journey

Bridget’s Journey II

Bridget’s Journey III

The judge wrote: “Strong photography. The audio wasn’t very richly recorded — at least it didn’t play back well for me. The newspaper made an investment in the story, and I applaud the follow-through. Once again, I would like to see how it was played in the newspaper. In another year, this could have been a first place, but was up against a very strong and more complete and comprehensive entry by St. Cloud.”

Newspaper leaders in Iowa judged the Minnesota entries this year. The Star Tribune and Pioneer Press generally don’t enter the competition, but the Albert Lea Tribune does compete in many categories against larger papers such as the St. Cloud Times, Duluth News-Tribune and Rochester Post-Bulletin.