Standard Press wins 5 awards in state contest

The Burlington Standard Press, published by Southern Lakes Newspapers, is winner of five awards for journalistic excellence in the Wisconsin Newspaper Association’s 2015 Better Newspaper Contest.

The awards – first place for business coverage, lifestyle pages and best use of social media-sports, as well as third-place for special pages and honorable mention for sports news story – were presented at the WNA’s annual convention in Madison Feb. 26.

The company’s business section, which was launched a year ago, earned high praise from the contest judges representing the Minnesota Newspaper Association.

“The breadth and scope of the coverage is astonishing. This is journalism of which to be proud,” judges in the business coverage category wrote.

In addition to the first-place award for business coverage, the section garnered a third-place award in the special pages category.

Judges in that category wrote that the “nice design” of the section “helps subscribers want to keep reading.”

The business section is edited by Editor in Chief Ed Nadolski and includes writing and reporting by staff members Vicky Wedig, Jennifer Eisenbart, Tracy Ouellette, Heather Ruenz and Kellen Olshefski. The winning entries also included stories written by former staff members Bethe Croy and Rumasa Noor. Creative Director Sue Lange collaborates with Nadolski on page design for the section.

Southern Lakes Newspapers’ Lifestyle page captured a first-place award with a trio of entries the judges lauded for strong feature writing and page design.

“Love the design and layout of this one. Eye catching, attractive and wonderful stories as well,” the judges wrote.

The winning entry consisted of three separate Lifestyle editions featuring stories written by Eisenbart and Wedig, and page design by Eisenbart and graphic designer Jennifer DeGroot.

The business section and Lifestyle pages appear in most of Southern Lakes’ weekly newspapers. The entries competed in the WNA contest among mid-size circulation weekly newspapers under the banner of the Standard Press, which is the company’s largest circulation newspaper.

Sports Editor Mike Ramczyk was honored in two categories.

His multi-platform coverage of a frightening, but ultimately benign, injury suffered by a high school football player, took the top award among all weekly newspapers for social media sports journalism.

Ramczyk’s coverage –which included live Tweets, Facebook posts and a radio show interview, in addition to print and website stories – examined the fallout from a racially charged comment made by the coach of the opposing team in the wake of the injury.

In addition, Ramczyk’s coverage of the 2015 WIAA state wrestling tournament earned honorable mention for sports news story with the judges recognizing it as “well written” with “good quotes.”