East Texas newspapers earn top awards
May 24—The Palestine Herald Press and Corsicana Daily Sun newspapers recently brought home first place awards from the North and East Texas Press Association Better Newspaper convention, held ing April in Nacogdoches.
"We are blessed to have very talented editorial teams lead by Michael Kormos in Corsicana and PennyLynn Webb in Palestine," said Publisher Jake Mienk. "They are both passionate about their communities and the newspapers. We don't do this for the awards, but they do help solidify the importance of our mission of better the communities we serve. It's an honor to be a part of these teams."
Palestine Herald-Press editor PennyLynn Webb earned first place in Feature Story. Webb's submissions were recognized for "capturing the lives of the unseen in small town Texas."
Webb's submissions included a local response to the war in the Ukraine, an article about a Hispanic family who has achieved the American dream through the high school and college education of their three children and a third about an African-American family seeking justice for their son who is believed to have been murdered, but his body has been missing for almost three years.
The judges comments stated, "This paper is doing the hard but important work of sharing the stories of ALL the people in their community. Kudos to the Palestine Herald-Press for covering these stories during this culturally explosive era in which we are living. This community is being well served by this newspaper."
Stuart Whitaker, a contract photographer for the Palestine Herald-Press, also earned second place in the Feature Photo division of the contest for his photos of a candlelight vigil for a man who was shot and killed in Palestine and those of a local police officer returning home after eight months in the hospital, coming as close to death as one can from COVID.
Daily Sun Editor Michael Kormos took first place in News Writing, in the Small Semi Weekly Division, for his coverage of the tragic events of February 2022 when friends, families and neighbors pulled together in the wake of a shooting spree that killed six people and left two others wounded in Navarro County.
"Nice combination of stories that show two angles to the same news event, well done" NETPA stated.
Daily Sun Sports Editor Mike Phillips earned first place in Sports Writing, in the Small Semi Weekly Division, for his articles profiling former Corsicana High School Head Coach Hal Wasson and Dawson football player Hunter Boatwright.
"Great piece on Coach Wasson and a very unique article about Hunter Boatwright," NETPA stated. "Very different but both are very well done."
