Phillips County News nets 11 awards in MNA Better Newspaper Contest

The 132nd Annual Convention of the Montana Newspaper Association was held June 16 and 17 in Lewistown, Mont., and The Phillips County News earned 11 awards — three of them first place trophies — during the Saturday night award ceremony.

PCN Sports Editor Pierre Bibbs swept the Best Sports Page Layout and Design category, capturing first, second and third place honors. The first place award-winning page featured the story Reliving the 12-0 Mustangs of '06 about the 2006 State Champion Mustangs football team. Bibbs earned second place honors in the category for the design surrounding the Malta M-ettes 2016 basketball championship entitled Back to Back and the third place award was given for the February 15, 2016, sports page that featured a Mustang’s divisional basketball preview and Kaden Moore taking first place at the State B/C Wrestling Tournament.

PCN Publisher Mark Hebert earned two first place awards, one for writing and the other for advertising design. The writing award was for Best Sports Story for the October 29 story Mustangs Drop Heartbreaker to Scotties, head to Eureka.

“The play-by-play account of this rivalry football game's gripping final minutes adds so much to the story,” the judge wrote. “This judge, a fellow small-town sports writer, feels strongly that more of us ought to follow Mark's example here.”

Hebert also earned the Best Newspaper Promotional Ad highlighting a push for PCN subscriptions as Christmas gifts.

The PCN earned four second-place awards at the contest two for writing and two for special publications.

PCN Correspondent Kirsten Voegel took second place in the Best Feature Story category for her story entitled ’It’s Just a knife’…a story about family and faith about her father, Don, finding a pocket knife in the drained Nelson Reservoir which his eight-year-old son, Brian, had dropped in the water 33-years earlier (the Voegel’s lost Brian when he was just 20-years-old.)

“So heartwarming,” the judge wrote of the Voegel’s story. “Loved this story and its message.”

The other second place award for writing went to Hebert in the Best Column Writing category. Hebert’s The lost trade of the paper boy elicited a judge's comment of “Many of us were paper boys and often wonder the same thing … great flow of facts.”

Hebert and PCN Advertising Manager Sarah Osmundson teamed up for the annual Black Friday insert to take second place in the Special Section Publication category and Bibbs, Hebert, Osmundson and Copy Editor and Office Manger Deborah Solberg earned second place in the Best Niche Publication for the Fall Sports Preview (it should be noted that Solberg was also a Copy Editor on all the awards earned.)

Third place awards also went to Hebert for Best Sports Column Writing for his piece entitled Shoot out at the Saco Range — “Local content presented in an amusing way” quipped the judge — and third-place honors for the entire PCN staff for the Best Niche Publication category for the Spring Sports Preview.

The staff at the PCN would like to thank their advertisers and readers for allowing them to represent this wonderful community.

The full presentation of all the awards can be found online at http://www.mtnewspapers.com/awards2017/presentation.php. The 2017 MNA contest was judged by members of the North Dakota Press Assocaition.

The mission of the Montana Newspaper Association is to advance and sustain the news publishing industry in Montana. The association has 83 professional member newspapers and was established in 1885.