Times wins honors in state newspaper contest

Judges named The Aspen Times the top newspaper, editorially, in its circulation class at the 128th annual Colorado Press Association convention in Denver on Saturday.The Aspen Times won the editorial sweepstakes award for outstanding editorial content at the CPA convention. The Times edged out Steamboat Springs Pilot & Today and the Vail Daily for the sweepstakes award, which goes to one news department in each of seven circulation categories. The 128th annual convention took place at the Brown Palace in Denver. The three-day event included seminars, round-table discussions and contests in a variety of categories in news and opinion writing, photography and advertising.The editorial department at the Times won 16 separate awards in this year’s contest. Members of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association and Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington judged Colorado’s newspapers.The news staff as a whole took a first place award in the special sections category for its coverage of Hunter S. Thompson’s suicide in The Aspen Times Weekly. The staff also won awarded second place for its reporting the night of the incident in the deadline news reporting category.The news staff took first place for public service for a series in June on drug use and its affects on the community. The staff also earned top honors for stories and editorials in support of free speech protections in the First Amendment. Reporter Scott Condon took first place for a business story about roughnecks working on gas-drilling rigs in Garfield County. That story was the first of a four-part series that took second place in the series competition.Chad Abraham took second place in the news story competition for a piece on the recall effort against now-deposed District Attorney Colleen Truden. The editorial staff won first place for the paper’s sustained coverage of the Truden story. The Times editorial board – Jenna Weatherred, Bob Ward and Allyn Harvey – won second place in the editorial writing category.Times columnists dominated the competition, sweeping one category and winning in two other categories. Meredith Cohen, Andy Stone and Barry Smith took first, second and third, respectively, in the humorous column writing category, one of the few sweeps at the convention. Roger Marolt took two awards, first place for serious column writing and third place in sports column writing. Tim Dudley won first place for headline writing. The Times’ page production staff took first place for editorial layout and design.In all, the editorial department took 17 individual and staff awards. The advertising staff also put in a strong showing, winning eight awards in all.Production Manager Barbara New won three awards for her design work. She took second place in the real estate advertisement competition for a Mason & Morse ad. She won first place for an ad that promoted circulation – it’s not the newspaper, it’s the people – and first place for the bear calendar that promoted The Aspen Times. Advertising representative John Keck Jr. won two awards: third place for a McCormick Properties in the same real estate advertisement competition that New took second in, and third place for use of a small ad space. Advertising representative Christine Maggi won second place for an advertising campaign she put together for Pascal Bensimon, the hairdresser who took actor Kevin Costner’s laptop computer. Advertising representative Ashton Hewitt won third place for a full-page Meridian Jewelers ad in the color advertising competition.The advertising production staff won first place in the advertising layout and design competition.