The Kinder Courier was recognized for its excellence in journalism with several awards bestowed upon staff members by the Louisiana Press Association for work completed in 2019 this week.
Publisher Garland Forman was excited with the staff’s wins as he made the announcement Kinder was a few points from being named Newspaper of the Year in its division. The staff learned Gonzales Weekly won the category with 37 points followed by Kinder Courier with 32 points, The Eunice News with 22 points and Ville Platte Gazette with 17 points. The Kinder Courier also had enough points to win the Editorial Sweepstakes Award, which had been elimininated this past year from the contest. (Each first place win gave the staff 6 points, 4 points for second place and 2 points for third place.)
The staff won second in the General Excellence category which is judged on overall creativity, layout and design as well as reader appeal, news quality and editorial page. The editions submitted for judging were from April 25, 2019, and November 7, 2019.
The newsroom won first place in three categories given in rememberance of those who excelled in that particular field. Carissa Hebert won first place in Best Investigative Reporting, also known as the Gibbs Adams Award, for her piece on the town of Oberlin June 27, 2019. The story asked if corruption existed in the community as the FBI conducted an investigation into spending. The award is given in memory of long-time State Times-Morning Advocate investigative reporter Gibbs Adams. The criteria stated entries should demonstrate staff initiative and enterprise as well as looking at overall quality of writing and how deep writers had to dig to find the story.
Hebert also won first place for Best Regular Column or the Sam Hanna Award for her column published on July 18, 2019, where she reflected on being a victim of sexual assault and how she worked to accept what had happened to her. The award is given in memory of long-time columnist and publisher of the Concordia Sentinel in Ferriday, the Franklin Sun in Winnsboro, and the Ouachita Citizen of West Monroe.
Hebert won first place for Best Layout and Design, also known as the Gary Hebert Award, which is given in memory of Gary Hebert, no relation, who was a trendsetter in the world of weekly newspaper design. Under his reign, the Plaquemine Post/South received many awards for graphic design and effective use of spot color. Strong emphasis was placed on creativity and imagination as well as reader impact and eye-appeal. She won first place for the graphic design of the Reeves Lady Raiders making history by entering Top 28 for the first time in four decades, published February 28, 2019. She won third place for the front page design on March 7, 2019, which depicted placers from Elton and Reeves as they worked toward the state championship playoffs. Elton won, and Reeves was second runnerup.
Hebert and Rebekah Ogea won first place for Best Story or Editorial from Public Notice. This was an open competition for papers who focused on the importance of public notices.
Hebert won second place for Best Headline. She was joined by Oakdale Journal’s Courtney Henry and former Ville Platte Gazette’s Elizabeth West in placing second in Best News Story for the trio’s look at how the government shutdown affected the Oakdale prison on January 17, 2019. The ladies had stories from the prison, immigration, court and national congressmen on how employees were continuing to work with no pay.
The staff’s photographers, Jessica Richard and Rebekah Ogea, each won a couple of awards for their photos. Richard won first in Best Feature Photo for a Little League photo, printed July 7, 2019. Ogea won Best Sports Photo for a football shot she took October 3, 2019, when the Oberlin Tigers met Gueydan. Both women placed in Best Photo Package. Richard placed second for the paper’s annual Little League pages filled with local teams. Ogea won third place in the same category for a group of photos published December 19, 2019, in the paper’s holiday special for the Kinder Christmas Parade.
Tony Marks, a sports writer for LSN, the parent company of Kinder, won second place for his coverage of Elton winning a state champion in 44 years and Reeves being named runnersup, the first title in 46 years for the school, both in girls basketball action. The story was printed on March 7, 2019.
A third place award was given to the staff for Best Multiple Advertiser for ads done on May 23, 2019, for the Rosie School of Dance. This award used the basic idea, copy typography and creativity when bestowing the award on a newspaper.
Three LSN employees also were named to LPA’s board for the upcoming year. Mary Terry is president-elect. Darrell Guillory will served as director for three years, and Garland Forman will serve as director for one year.
