ADG tops website category in Great Plains Journalism Awards

The Arkansas DemocratGazette won Best Website at the Great Plains Journalism Awards earlier this month.

The annual awards are presented by the Tulsa Press Club and Benevolent Association. Winners and finalists were announced at a luncheon in the Crystal Ballroom at the Mayo Hotel in Tulsa on Friday, May 5.

The newspaper’s awardwinning website can be found at arkansasonline. com. In addition, two Arkansas Democrat-Gazette staff members picked up individual awards. Columnist Philip Martin won the Entertainment Feature with “Jerry Lee Lewis” and photographer Thomas Metthe won General News Photography with “Davis Trial.”

Other Arkansas journalists named as finalists for awards this year include Wally Hall, Stan Denman, Emily Gist, Gwen Faulkenberry, Stephen Swofford, Colin Murphey, Teresa Moss, Joshua Snyder, Sarah Campbell-Miller and Maggie McNeary, all of the Arkansas DemocratGazette.

In the student category, Mary Beth Kemp, Sarah Komar and Robert Stewart of the University of Arkansas’s student newspaper, The Arkansas Traveler, were named as finalists. Victoria Hernandez and Blaise Keasler of the student magazine, The Hill, were also selected.

The annual contest, now in its 14th year, honors newspaper, magazine, television and web journalism from Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South

Dakota. Entries were judged by award-winning professional journalists from across the country.

The Tulsa Press Club was founded in 1906 as a members-only professional organization offering networking, education events and social opportunities. The club promotes the highest standards in journalism with an emphasis in recognizing young journalism talent through its annual scholarship initiatives. Visit tulsapressclub.org for more information.