The BDN received welcome news earlier in the week, in the form of a letter of congratulations. Each year, the newspaper submits entries into the Missouri Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest. This year, the BDN received five awards.

The contest evaluates newspapers from all over the state in numerous categories. Newspapers printed from Jan. 1, 2008 to Dec. 31, 2008 were critiqued by a newspaper association out of Nebraska. Newspapers are judged against papers of similar circulation sizes.

For 2008, the BDN received the following awards: second place in General Excellence; third place in Best Newspaper Design; first place for Best Sports Photo; third place for Best Sports Pages; and third place for Best Sports Feature.

The award for General Excellence was based on four circulation classes. Criteria included: quality of writing, advertising design and layout, general layout, use of photos and artwork, editorial page, front page, sports page, headline language, scope of coverage and treatment of public notices.
Best Newspaper Design had two circulation classes and was judged on the following criteria:  consistency of layout and design, typography, photography and graphics, white space and design elements.

The award for Best Sports Pages followed a similar criteria, with: quality of writing, layout, photography, scope of content and local features and columns.

The Best Sports Feature was written by sports editor Chris Bowie. The story dealt with the Boonville R-1 school district’s transition into the North Central Missouri Conference from the Missouri River Valley Conference.

Best Sports Photo was taken by Bowie and shows Harrison Weathers of Boonville diving for a ball in right field.