DENVER - The Cortez Journal emerged from the annual Colorado Press Association convention with more than 70 awards.
At Saturday night's banquet, the Journal was recognized with the General Excellence award as well as sweeping all three sweepstakes awards for editorial, advertising, and photo and design.
Competing against other small daily newspapers with circulation under 6,000, Journal staff members brought home a total of 69 awards; 28 coming for editorial content, 14 for photo and design and 21 in the advertising category.
The Journal's website, cortezjournal.com, picked up six awards.
Included in the 25 first-place awards were three entries from the Journal's Weber Fire coverage. The Journal won for public service, best sustained coverage and for an environmental story by Kimberly Benedict.
Benedict also picked up first-place awards for agriculture story, business story and investigative story package for her coverage of the Southwest Open School's bond effort.
"This contest, judged by our peers in the industry, validates the high-quality work that our news, advertising and design employees consistently deliver for our readers and advertisers, "said Suzy Meyer, Journal publisher. "I'm proud of the entire Journal staff."
Dale Shrull picked up 15 individual or shared awards including five first places.
Veteran photographer Sam Green won a total of nine awards including first places in photography portfolio, sports photo, as well as for feature and photo essay, which came from his annual trek for the Pick 'n' Hoe festival in Dove Creek. He also won first in the feature page design category.
"As usual, Sam Green's photography is some of the best in the state," Shrull said.
Former editor Russell Smyth won first place awards for headline writing and humor column writing.
Amanda Puett won two first-place awards for advertising.
The Journal's Veterans Day coverage from 2011 was recognized for a website multimedia package by Shrull and special section cover design by Linda McDarby and Shrull.
This was the fourth year in a row the Journal has won General Excellence. This was the first year that the Journal moved into a daily newspaper category.
Friday night, the Journal was recognized with seven awards including honorable mention in the General Excellence category. The Durango Herald took first place in the category.
At the Colorado Press Association contest, The Herald won for General Excellence as well as the sweepstakes awards for editorial content.
Journal reporter Luke Groskopf won a third place for a health story while he was working for The Herald.
The Dolores Star won a total of seven awards, with Shannon Livick winning seven awards including four first places. Abplanalp won a second-place award for a sports story that appeared in the Star.
Complete list of Cortez Journal winning entries:
Editorial
First Place
Investigative Story Package, Kimberly Benedict
Agricultural Story, Kimberly Benedict
Environmental Story, Kimberly Benedict
Business News Story, Kimberly Benedict
Sports Column Writing, Dale Shrull
Business Feature Story, Dale Shrull
Health Feature Story, Dale Shrull
Public Service, Kimberly Benedict, Dale Shrull, Suzy Meyer
Sustained Coverage, Kimberly Benedict, Sam Green, Michael Maresh, Suzy Meyer
News Series, Joe Hanel
Humorous Column Writing, Russell Smyth
Headline Writing, Russell Smyth
Second Place
Story Picture Combination, Dale Shrull, Sam Green
Health Feature Story, Dale Shrull
Deadline News Reporting, Dale Shrull
Investigative Story, Dale Shrull
Headline Writing, Dale Shrull
Public Service, Dale Shrull
Feature Story, Dale Shrull
News Story, Kimberly Benedict
Third Place
Sports Story, Bobby Abplanalp
Sports Event Story, Bobby Abplanalp
Business Feature Story, Dale Shrull
Agriculture Story, Dale Shrull
Humorous Column Writing, Dale Shrull
Education Story, Kimberly Benedict
Business News Story, Brandon Mathis
Health Enterprise Story, Reid Wright
Photography and Design
First Place
Photography Portfolio, Sam Green
Feature Photograph, Sam Green
Sports Photograph, Sam Green
Photo Essay, Sam Green
Feature Page Design, Sam Green
Cover Design, Dale Shrull, Linda McDarby
Informational Graphic, staff
Second Place
Informational Graphic, staff
Photo Essay, Sam Green
Feature Page Design, Dale Shrull, Deanne Sanders
Editorial Layout & Design, staff
Third Place
Sports Photograph, Sam Green
News Photograph, Sam Green
News Page Design, Linda McDarby
Advertising and Website
First Place
Color in an Ad, Amanda Puett
Health Care Ad, Amanda Puett
Advertising Slogan, Michael Billy
Restaurant or Dining Ad, staff
Advertising Special Section, staff
Website-Daily-Multimedia, Dale Shrull
Second Place
Advertising Layout & Design, staff
Health Care Ad, staff
Best Automotive Ad, staff
Website-Daily-Advertising, staff
Black & White Ad, Amanda Puett
Restaurant or Dining Ad, Michael Billy
Website Promotion, Dale Shrull, Robert Sliwinski
Advertising Slogan, Dale Shrull
Advertising Special Section, Mark Drudge
Website-Daily-Content, staff
Website-Daily-Design, staff
Third Place
Advertising Slogan, Dale Shrull
Website Promotion, Mark Drudge
Real Estate Ad, Mark Drudge
Newspaper/House Ad Promotion, Mark Drudge
Small Space Ad, staff
Restaurant or Dining Ad, staff
Classified Page(s) or Selection(s), staff
Website-Daily-Interactivity, staff
Website-Daily-Community, Dale Shrull, Sam Green