Tribune wins 9 awards in statewide contest

Published 10:47 pm Friday, January 31, 2020

The Albert Lea Tribune took home nine awards Thursday night at the Minnesota Newspaper Association’s Better Newspaper Contest banquet in Brooklyn Park.

The newspaper won second place in the Best Magazine category among all daily newspapers in Minnesota for its May/June 2019 issue, which featured Kara, Brien and Breckyn Heinemann on the cover.

“Great use of local content, and graphics always draw the readers in,” the judge wrote of the magazine.

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The newspaper won four advertising-related awards, including third place in the Advertising Excellence category among daily newspapers under 10,000 circulation.

“Lots of great colorful ads that really jump off the paper to you,” the judge wrote.

Former Tribune graphic designer Kim Ehrich won first place for a Halloween house advertisement she created for Albert Lea Magazine, encouraging people who made costumes for their children to reach out to the staff for a feature.

“Loved the pop of the colors and how the designer fit the costumes into the design,” the judge wrote.

Ehrich also won first place among all dailies in the Best Advertisement category for a Papa Murphy’s ad she created for a promotion the pizza restaurant had for Super Bowl weekend in 2019 and third place in the Advertising Campaign category for an ad she made for the same company.

Photo editor Colleen Harrison won two awards, one of which was first place among all daily newspapers for a sports photo she took at a rodeo in Northwood.

“Couldn’t resist this first-place winner,” the judge wrote of the sports photo. “Great composition and skill to capture this moment of the falling rider in perfect juxtaposition to the bull, who is winning this competition.”

Harrison was awarded third place in the Press Photographer’s Portfolio category among all daily newspapers.

“The portrait personality of the child with autism is something special. Lovely body of work,” judges said in describing Harrison’s portfolio.

“This was really tough to judge. There were a lot of solid portfolios,” judges said about the pool of applicants for the category overall, in which photographers from the Brainerd Dispatch and Rochester Post-Bulletin took first and second place, respectively. “… All three photographers selected are exceptionally talented in a pool of very talented photographers.”

The newspaper also won third place in the Typography and Design category among dailies under 10,000 and second place in the Editorial Page as a Whole category among the same newspaper class.

“Excellent page designs,” the judge wrote of the submitted Tribune opinion pages. “The slice-of-life columns are well-paired with opinion pieces by contributors. Editorial cartoons add edge.”

The newspaper contest is held annually for both college and professional newspapers.

The awards handed out Thursday night were for work performed between September 2018 and August 2019.