Nevada Appeal staff honored with General Excellence award in Nevada Newspaper competition

Led by photographer Jim Grant’s five awards, the Nevada Appeal brought home 15 awards from the Nevada Press Association’s annual Better Newspaper Contest — including winning General Excellence.

General Excellence is the highest honor a newspaper can win. Winners were announced Friday evening at the NPA’s annual banquet in Sparks.

The Appeal was second in Advertising General Excellence, the top award for advertising given out.

“Our crew strives every day to improve the quality of the Nevada Appeal,” Publisher Mark Raymond said. “We’ve been humbled and pleased with the response from the good residents of Carson City. The selection of the Appeal for the General Excellence Award by the judges are an additional endorsement that we are on the right track. We’ll be even better next year.”

Grant won best News Photo Coverage for his photo of a fire drop. He was second in the Best Feature Photo Category, third in News Photo Category, Sports Photo and Best Portrait.

News reporter John Barrette won first place in Best Business News Story category for his story about Carson City’s proposed innovation district.

Barrette took home second place in the Best Entertainment Writing and second place for his weekly Sunday opinion column, “Scene In Passing.”

Photographer Brad Coman took third place in the Best Feature Photo category for his photo of runners during the Nevada Day Classic.

The Nevada Appeal staff, along with General Excellence honors, took home first place in Best Multimedia Story for its coverage of Nevada Day, took home second place for Best Editorial Page, Overall Design and Best Web Site.

“It is nice to be honored for our work, especially as we celebrate our Sesquicentennial year,” Editor Adam Trumble said. “Our staff will build on this year’s successes in order to get better next year.”

NPA member newspapers serve readers in Nevada and are awarded top honors in the state each year in reporting, photography, graphic design, editorial writing, advertising and general excellence. This year’s awards were for content created April, 2014 through March, 2015. The Appeal competes in the “Intermediate” category.