The OU Daily won 21 awards in the Oklahoma Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest on Saturday night in Shawnee, including the Sequoyah Award as the state’s top college news organization.
The Sequoyah Award, which is the highest honor in the Better Newspaper Contest, is determined by the points accumulated in eight of the contest’s 20 categories: News content, layout and design, advertising, editorial writing, photography, sports coverage, sales promotion and community leadership.
The Daily was the most honored collegiate publication (11 first-place honors, six second place, four third place) and the second-most honored overall publication in the state behind The Norman Transcript.
The contest covered 2017, in which The Daily’s editors-in-chief were Dana Branham for spring, Kelli Stacy for summer and Jesse Pound for fall.
By category, here’s how The Daily fared overall:
- News content: Second place
- Layout and design: First place
- Advertising: First place
- Photography: First place
- Sports coverage: Third place
- Sales promotion: First place
- Community leadership: Third place, mental health
- Digital media: First place
- News story: First place, Anna Bauman and Kayla Branch for “All I know is America”
- Sports story: First place, George Stoia for “Stoops tackles retirement”
- Sports story: Second place, Joe Buettner for “Baker Mayfield Heisman”
- Sports story: Third place, Kelli Stacy for “Caleb Kelly: Taking heart”
- In-depth reporting: First place, Dana Branham for “Confronting history: DeBarr Avenue”
- In-depth reporting: Third place, Emma Keith for “Waiting game”
- Small-space ad: First place, Alex Butt for Baked Bear
- Small-space ad: Second place, Amelia Kinsinger for Qdoba
- Large-space ad: First place, Austin Childers for Epic Pops
- Large-space ad: Second place, Austin Childers for OU Graduation Office
- Sports photograph: First place, Caitlyn Epes for basketball height
- Sports photograph: Second place, Paxson Haws for touchdown celebration
- Front-page design: Second place, Dana Branham, Jesse Pound and Megan Ross for “Boren: Ending an era”