The Log Cabin Democrat won the general excellence award and took home 16 first-place awards in the 26 categories in the Associated Press Managing Editors Association 2003 journalism contest.
The awards were announced during a banquet Saturday night in Hot Springs.
For the third-consecutive year the Log Cabin won the sweepstakes award, which goes to the newspaper that wins the most awards in its circulation category. The Log Cabin competed in the medium-sized dailies category for papers with a circulation of 8,000 to 15,000.
It was the second time in three years that the Log Cabin won the general excellence award, which goes to the paper judged to be the best in the circulation category.
In addition to the first-place awards, the staff won nine second-place awards and eight third-place awards.
Staff Writer Samantha Huseas won first place in the spot news category for coverage of a tornado that struck Faulkner County in December. She also won first place in beat reporting and business reporting. Huseas won third place in the news feature and health topics categories.
Staff Writer Tammy Keith won first place awards in the education reporting and news feature categories. She also won second place in the news feature, hard news column and beat reporting categories. She won third place in the education reporting category.
Staff Writer David McCollum won first and second place in the sports story category and first place in the sports column category. He also won third place in the lifestyle column category.
Photographer Mike Kemp won first place in the spot news photo category and first and third place in the spot sports photo category. Kemp also took home second place in the photographer's portfolio and feature sports photo categories.
Former Photographer Amanda Bruning won first place in the feature sports photo category.
News Editor Dean Wheeler won first-place honors in the headline writing, page design and graphics categories.
Managing Editor David Keith won first place in the editorial writing category and second place in the headline writing category.
Staff Writer Fred Petrucelli won second place in the health-related topics category.
Former Staff Writers Justin Petruccelli and Michael Frazier won second and third places respectively in the campaign coverage category.
Former Staff Writer Robert Evatt won third place in beat reporting.
The newspaper's staff won first place in the special project category with coverage of the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and third place in the news coverage category.
