Daily Sentinel places high among Iowa papers

The Le Mars Daily Sentinel ranked high among Iowa's newspapers, earning an armload of honors in the Iowa Newspaper Association's 2010 Better Newspaper Contests.

At an awards banquet Friday, the Daily Sentinel picked up 10 first place awards, tallying enough points to rank third in its class and sixth place among more than 100 Iowa newspapers in the contest.

Competing with newspapers in the same class based on circulation size, the Daily Sentinel earned first place for Best Editorial Pages, Coverage of Government and Politics, Coverage of Agriculture, Best Use of Graphics, Best Spot News Photo for a photo by Magdalene Landegent and Best Slideshow.

The Daily Sentinel also placed first in several advertising categories including Best Newspaper Marketing, Best Agricultural Advertising, Best Ad Featuring Grocery/Food/Entertainment and Best Ad Designer for Shannon Jost.

Second place awards for the Daily Sentinel included Master Columnist for Tom Stangl and Best Ad Featuring Miscellaneous.

Third place awards for the Daily Sentinel were General Excellence, Best Front Page and Best Web Advertisement.

The Daily Sentinel competed in the Daily Class 1, for newspapers published daily with a circulation of up to 9,999.

At the awards banquet, the Des Moines Register was named Iowa's Newspaper of the Year, tallying the most points in the Better Newspaper Contests.

The Iowa Falls Times-Citizen placed second.