ROANOKE
The Tidewater News, for the second year in a row, has won the Virginia Press Association’s Grand Sweepstakes. In doing so, the paper has won the top prize for three consecutive years.

For the 2014 contest, the paper also took home the Advertising Sweepstakes for non-daily newspapers in category one.

The VPA started the Grand Sweepstakes award last year, combining points from the News and Advertising sweepstakes groupings. Previously, for the 2012 contest that the paper won, entries were not separated into categories for news and advertising.

The Tidewater News, with 27 points in news and 39 points in advertising, for a total of 66 out of a possible 346 points competing in a field of 33 publications. The two first-place winners for news had 28 points. The category is the largest one in terms of number of publications.

“It’s always special to be honored by your peers in the newspaper industry,” said publisher Tony Clark. “But I have a front-row seat every day that allows me to see the effort and dedication that goes into the work our team does for this community, so while it’s a tremendous honor, I am not that surprised.”

Sweepstakes awards are given to a publication based on its cumulative point totals in various categories, earning three points for each first-place award; two points for each second-place award; and one point for each third-place award. To qualify for the news sweepstakes, a print publication must win at least one award in each of the major components of the contest — writing, art/photography and presentation.

To qualify for a grand sweepstakes award, a publication must win at least one award in each of the two major components — news and advertising.

Individual awards in news were:

• Brandon Robbins, second place, personal service writing;

• Cain Madden, First place, feature photo; first place, sports writing portfolio; third place, pictorial photo;

• Cain Madden and Ryan Outlaw, first place, multimedia news report;

• Cain Madden and Stephen Cowles, third place, combination picture and story;

• Loretta Lomax, first place, specialty pages or section design (Agribusiness); second place, specialty pages or section design (School News); and third place, specialty pages or section design (Business);

• Loretta Lomax, Cain Madden and Ryan Outlaw, second place, front page design;

• Ryan Outlaw, third place, informational graphics;

• Staff, best website, first place;

• Stephen Cowles, third place, business and financial writing;

• Tony Clark, third place, column writing; third place, editorial writing; and

• Tony Clark, Stephen Cowles and Cain Madden, second place, headline writing.

Individual awards in advertising were:

• Loretta Lomax, first place, food and drug (b&w); first place, member self-promotion (b&w); second place, fashion and personal care (b&w); second place, real estate; second place, recruitment; third place, home and garden (b&w); third place, lifestyles (b&w); third place, professional / technology services (b&w); third place, real estate;

• Ryan Outlaw, first place, member self promotion (color); first place, professional / technology services (b&w); second place, education and churches (b&w); second place, member self promotion (color); third place, automotive;

• Ryan Outlaw and Mitzi Lusk, first place, education and churches (b&w); first place, home and garden (b&w); and

• Staff, first place, professional / technology services (color); second place, slick publications; third place, special sections.

The news and advertising contests were for work published in VPA-member publications during 2014. Judges from members of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association reviewed 3,628 news entries and 1,278 advertising entries to select the award winners.