Staff reports

BILOXI &8212; The Natchez Democrat won 31 awards, including 13 first-place awards, in the annual Associated Press Managing Editors Association contest Friday.

The competition includes newspapers from Mississippi and Louisiana.

Awards include:

General feature &8212;

Joan Gandy

, first place;

Kerry Whipple

Bean, second place;

Julie Finley

, third place

Spot news &8212;

Kerry Whipple

Bean, Christian Schmidt and

Nita McCann

, second place

Personal columns &8212;

Julie Finley

, first place;

Kerry Whipple

Bean, third place

Business coverage &8212;

Kerry Whipple

Bean, first place

Lifestyles &8212;

Julie Finley

, Christian Schmidt,

Joan Gandy

,

Nita McCann

,

Kerry Whipple

Bean, first place

Continuing coverage &8212; The Democrat staff for Katrina coverage, first place

Sports feature &8212;

Adam Daigle

, first place

Spot news photo &8212;

Ben Hillyer

, first place

General news photo &8212;

Marcie McDowell

, first place;

Ben Hillyer

, second and third place

Sports action photo &8212;

Ben Hillyer

, first and second place;

Marcie McDowell

, third place

Sports feature photo &8212; Anne McDaniel, first place;

Ben Hillyer

, second place

Feature photo &8212;

Ben Hillyer

, first, second and third place

Illustration &8212;

Ben Hillyer

, first, second and third place

Multi-picture combination &8212;

Ben Hillyer

, first and second place; Molly Dempsey, third place

Personality portrait photo &8212;

Ben Hillyer

, third place