NEW ORLEANS — The Natchez Democrat staff won 35 total awards, including nine first-place awards Saturday at the Mississippi Press Association’s 2017 Better Newspaper Contest.

News editor Ben Hillyer also won the 2017 Photo of the Year in the state.

Hillyer’s spot news photo from an October house fire competed against the first-place winners in all photo categories from every circulation size in the state for the top prize.

In most categories, The Natchez Democrat competes against other Mississippi newspapers with a similar circulation size — between 9,000 and 15,000 daily — including the Hattiesburg American, The Vicksburg Post, The Commercial Dispatch (Columbus) and The (McComb) Enterprise Journal.

In a few categories, The Democrat competed against all daily newspapers in the state.

Fifty-one newspapers submitted a total of 2,307 entries to the contest.

The Natchez Democrat’s First place awards:

* General news photo — Hillyer, “Eclipse.”

* Spot photo — Hillyer, “Oak Street Fire.”

* Sports feature photo — Hillyer, “Trinity Tennis.”

* Photo series — Hillyer, “Lunch and learn.”

* Personality portrait — Nicole Hester, “Flood survivor.”

* Special section — staff, “Profile 2017.”

* Magazine story — David Hamilton, “365.”

* Best lede — Emmalee Molay, “Shattered.”

* Community service award — staff, “Please fix and you asked”

Second place awards were:

* General excellence — staff.

* General news story — Lindy Berryhill, “Waiting to recover.”

* In-Depth investigative coverage — Clara Turnage, “Why are costs going up when enrollment is down?”

* General news photo — Hester, “Kindergarten graduation.”

* Spot news photo — Hester, “Search continues.”

* Sports action photo — Hillyer, “Second base.”

* Pictorial series — Hester, “Field of dreams.”

* Best news package — Turnage and Hillyer, “Costs up, enrollment down.”

* Personality portrait — Hester, “Witch way.”

* Editorial page — staff.

* Lifestyles section — staff.

* Design — staff.

* Best headline — staff.

 

Third place awards were:

* Planned series — Cain Madden and Hillyer, “Building education.”

* Business news story — Hamilton, “Going down?”

* Sports feature — Molay, “What’s in a name?”

* Commentatry columns — Kevin Cooper

* Sports feature photograph — Molay, “District T-ball”

* Feature photograph — Hester, “Mardi Gras”

* Personality portrait — Hester, “Stylorama.”

* Editorials — staff.

* Sports section — sports staff.

* Magazine periodical —Natchez the Magazine.

* Magazine story — “Simply the best.”

* Website — Staff.

 

Here is a complete list of winners from the 2017 MPA Better Newspapers Contest.061718 MPA Complete list of winners