The Lincoln County News was presented the Sequoyah Award at the Oklahoma Press Association’s annual convention over the weekend.
The award is for best-in-class journalism across the state and goes to the top eight newspapers among the press association’s 175 members.
The Lincoln County News competed against newspapers in similar sized communities across the state.
“The Lincoln County News has long been known as one of the best community newspapers in Oklahoma, and it is always nice to be recognized by your peers as well as your readers as such,” said Brett Wesner, owner and publisher of the Lincoln County News. “I have nothing but admiration for our editor, Brian Blansett, and his team for the excellent work they do.
“For their paper to be named the best paper in the state for our class is well deserved, and I hope the readers of Lincoln County can take pleasure in knowing they support community journalism at its highest level.”
In addition to the Sequoyah Award, the Lincoln County News won six firstplace awards in the Better Newspaper Contest, which was judged by members of the Kentucky Press Association.
Those included:
- Layout and Design. “Stunning photos, bold images, excellent use of color,” wrote the judges.
- Kindra Blansett, Ad Design for Modern Oil.
- Kendra Johnson, Busi ness reporting for an article about an innovative worm farm south of Meeker.
- Lily Huff, Feature Writing for a piece about Stroud pom team member Sierra Wade.
- Rick Hester, Traci Cook, Kindra Blansett and Brian Blansett, Photo Feature spread for photos of high school football games in Week 3 of the season.
- Brian Blansett, Sports
Photo for a shot of Chandler’s Drake Rodriguez going for a pass in the end zone against Crossings Christian.
- Brian Blansett, Sports Reporting for an article about Meeker’s Riley Randall and Braxton Bussell finishing 1-2 at the state cross country meet.
The photo feature spread and sports photos were sweeps for the Lincoln County News, with Jennifer Pryor, Mario Holland and Brian Blansett taking second and Mario Holland and Brian Blansett winning third in the photo spread competition and Rick Hester taking second and third in the sports photo category.
The newspaper won second in photography, sports coverage and community leadership and third in advertising.
Mike McCormick took second in business reporting and third in in-depth reporting.
Lily Huff was second in news photography and Brian Blansett was second in feature photography and third in news photography.