HEBER SPRINGS -- The Blytheville Courier News received 13 total awards -- including second place for General Excellence -- at Saturday's annual awards ceremony conducted by the Arkansas Associated Press Managing Editors.
The ceremony took place during the organization's annual meeting, held at The Red Apple Inn in Heber Springs.
The Courier News brought home four first-place awards, three of which went to staff writer Shannon Spears Harris.
Harris took first place in the News Feature category for a feature story about the local "Healing in the Hood" program. She also received top honors in the Business Reporting category for an article about the county's struggle to fill jobs. And Harris took first and second place in the Human Interest Column category for a column about September 11 (first place) and a column about the trials and tribulations of automated telephone systems (second place).
The CN's other first-place plaque went to staff writer Aaron FitzPatrick, who won in the Sports Column category for a piece on last summer's Class 1A state baseball tournament.
In the General Excellence category, the Courier News placed second to the Daily Citizen in Searcy. Judges praised the CN's content and layout.
Other Blytheville winners are as follows:
-- Harris won second place for Non-Traditional News Item for a photo package about local students spending a day on Main Street.
-- Managing Editor Mark Brasfield took second place in Service to FOI for an article about the IRS seeking money from former Mayor Barrett Harrison.
-- Harris won third place in Service to FOI for an article exploring how the county uses its economic development tax.
-- FitzPatrick took third place for Sports Story for an article about the Armorel Tigers baseball team.
-- Editor Andy Weld won third place in Page Design for a series of news pages.
-- Brasfield won third place in Beat Reporting for coverage of the city's ongoing IRS saga.
-- The staff took third place in the Website category.
The Courier News competes in Division I of the contest, which includes the state's small daily newspapers.
"Our news staff continues to do an outstanding job producing feature material and coverage of local news events," Courier News publisher David Tennyson said. "I'm particularly pleased with our third-place selection in the Website category, which is becoming more and more relevant to overall newspaper operations, especially considering that blythevillecourier.com in its current format is not too much over a year old."