The DAILY LEADER captured 21 awards Saturday at the MississippiPress Association Better Newspaper Contest, including eight firstplace awards and the highly-coveted Print Quality Award.

The first place Print Quality Award was won in a categoryagainst all daily newspapers in the state. This award was firstpresented five years ago. Saturday’s first place gives The DAILYLEADER first place honors in three of those five years.

“We’re extremely proud of the production crew for continuallywinning that award in the pursuit of excellence,” said Editor andPublisher Bill Jacobs. “The desire of the production crew to be thebest in the business is clearly evident in the awards we’vereceived over the years.”

The paper took a third place in the second most highly-prizedcategory involving all dailies, the Advertising ExcellenceAward.

The advertising department as a whole also won third placeawards for Best Section or Edition Dedicated To An Editorial Topicand Best Overall Newspaper Promotion, which was an all dailycategory. Both awards were received for Focus – United WeStand.

Awards which were won in non-all daily categories were incompetition with all state dailies with a circulation of less than9,000.

“I’m very proud of our staff,” Jacobs said. “Winning 21 awardsis quite an accomplishment.”

In individual honors, Classifieds Manager Holly Perkins Slay ledthe way with seven solo and one shared award. She swept the BestHouse Ad- Classified category, winning first through third placehonors and won first and second place honors in the Best House Ad -Classified categories. She captured second in the Best Theme Pagecategory and took third place awards home in the Silver Dollar Ideaand Best Classified Page or Section. She shares third place honorsfor Best Use of Process Color – Institutional with GraphicsDesigner Regan Delaney.

Retail Advertising Manager Glynna Broxson captured six awards,sharing five of them with Graphics Director Jina King. The twopaired to capture two first place awards in the Best Institutionalor Service Advertisement and Best Automobile Advertisement – One orMore Spot Colors categories. Broxson also captured a first placewith her solo win, for Best Grocery Advertisement – One or MoreSpot Colors, while King’s solo win was an honorable mention forBest House Ad – Retail Advertising. The Broxson-King team alsocaptured third place honors in the Best Institutional or ServiceAdvertisement and Best Series of Ads categories and an honorablemention for Best Use of Processed Color – Institutional.

King also teamed with Advertising Executive Carol Teasley tobring home more awards. The Teasley-King team captured a first andthird place award for Best Political Advertisement – Black andWhite. Teasley also captured a second place award in the BestInstitutional Advertisement – One or More Colors in a teaming withGraphics Designer Denise Hart.

Advertising Executive Sandra Nettles teamed with King to bringhome a second place award in the Best Use of Process Color -Automobile category and a third place award for Best AutomobileAdvertisement – One or More Spot Colors.

General Manager and Advertising Director John Lowman won asecond place award for Best House Ad – Retail Advertising, sharingthe honors with King.

“We strive to put out the best newspaper possible for ourreaders and advertisers,” Jacobs said. “Recognition such as thisconfirms to us we are being successful in that job.”