A few of the North and East Texas Press Association Better Newspaper Awards plaques earned by Tyler Morning Telegraph are pictured. In all, the newspaper earned 15 awards. The M. Roberts Media team, which has six community newspapers in East Texas, earned 76 in total.

The Tyler Morning Telegraph team took home 15 awards in the North and East Texas Press Association Better Newspaper Contest. Awards were announced Saturday in Nacogdoches to conclude NETPA’S 96th annual convention.

Newspapers owned by M. Roberts Media fared well, as the company’s East Texas newsrooms earned a total of 76 awards. M. Roberts Media’s other East Texas newspapers include the Longview News-Journal, Marshall News Messenger, Kilgore News Herald, Panola Watchman and Henderson News.

“As we continue to evolve, our team’s mission remains the same – bringing quality content to our readers through our print, digital and live coverage,” said Justin Wilcox, publisher of the Morning Telegraph and senior vice president of M. Roberts Media. “These awards reflect our team’s unwavering commitment to report the important stories in our community. We are proud of each member of our staff and thank the North and East Texas Press Association for recognizing their collective efforts.”

The Morning Telegraph team earned second place in Sweepstakes, which is the contest’s highest honor determined by total number of points earned through first, second, third and fourth place awards. In the same division, the Longview News-Journal earned first place in Sweepstakes, while the Marshall News Messenger earned third. In the small semi-weekly division, Kilgore News Herald earned first, Panola Watchman earned second, and the Henderson News earned fourth.

The Morning Telegraph also earned first place in General Excellence, an achievement that recognizes a paper’s quality in news coverage and writing, composition/display, headlines, use of photos and artwork and the front page and specialty pages. It also earned first in Advertising.

Another top recognition includes first place in Special Section for the 2022 Texas Rose Festival Souvenir Magazine, produced by a number of advertising and editorial team members. The newspaper competed with NETPA’s other group newspapers in this combined division category.

Judges recognized the effort staff put into the souvenir edition, which is released each October ahead of the longtime Tyler festival.

“Such a neat tradition for Tyler (and all of the South). Took lots of work to make this quality, keepsake publication,” judges said.

The Morning Telegraph sports team received top honors, as a collection of stories by sports writer Brandon Ogden earned first place in the Sports Writing category while coverage by Ogden, sports editor Phil Hicks and others earned first place in Sports Coverage.

Multimedia reporter Jessica Payne was honored with third place for Journalist of the Year, which is combined division category that competes with all of NETPA’s group newspapers. Longview News-Journal reporter Jo Lee Ferguson led the way, earning first place for Journalist of the Year.

Other awards earned by the Morning Telegraph include:

Second place, News Writing, Payne

Second place, Editorial Writing

Second place, Headline Writing

Second place, Feature Photo, former multimedia reporter Ana Conejo

Third place, Feature Story, Payne

Third place, Column Writing, Odgen

Third place, News Photo, Conejo

Third place, Sports Photo, Payne

Other awards earned by papers within the M. Roberts Media team include:

Marshall News Messenger

First place, Feature Story, Robin Richardson and Jessica Harker

First place, Sports Photo, Hague and Hassell

First place, News Writing, Richardson

Second place, Advertising

Second place, Column Writing

Second place, Page Design

Second place, News Photo, Meredith Shamburger and Courtney Case

Third place, Feature Photo, Alexander Gould and Shambuger

Third place, Sports Writing, Nathan Hague

Third place, Headlines

Third place, Sports Coverage

Fourth place, Column Writing

Longview News-Journal

First place, Photographer of the Year, Les Hassell (combined division category)

First place, Editorial Writing

First place, Column Writing, Jack Stallard

First place, Headlines

First place, Page Design

First place, News Photo, Michael Cavazos

First place, Feature Photo, Hassell and Cavazos

Second place, Sports Photo, Hassell

Second place, Sports Coverage

Second place, Feature Story, Ferguson and Hassell

Second place, General Excellence

Second place, Sports Writing, Stallard and Thomas Bingham

Third place, News Writing, Ferguson

Third place, Community Service (combined division category)

Kilgore News Herald

First place, Advertising

First place, News Photo, Lucas Strough and Hassell

First place, Column Writing, Jase Graves

Second place, General Excellence

Second place, Page Design

Second place, Sports Coverage

Second place, Sports Photo, Dennis Jacobs

Third place, Feature Story, Sadiq King and Strough

Third place, Headlines

Third place, News Writing, King and Strough

Fourth place, Feature Photo, Hassell and King

Henderson News

Second place, Column Writing, Katy Mirtz-Myers

Second place, Headlines

Second place, News Writing, Lollar

Third place, Column Writing, Amber Lollar

Third place, Advertising

Third place, Sports Coverage

Fourth place, News Photo, Lollar

Fourth place, Sports Photo, Audrey Blaschke

Panola Watchman

First place, Page Design

First place, Headlines

First place, Sports Coverage

First place, News Writing, Shamburger and Mike Elswick

Second place, Advertising

Second place, News Photo, Shamburger

Second place, Sports Writing, Ryan Silapan

Third place, Sports Photo, Silapan and Addison Glaze

Fourth place, Column Writing, J.B. Morris

Fourth place, General Excellence