Select winners of the 2018 Alabama Press Association Better Newspaper Contest were announced recently with The Selma Times-Journal winning 23 of the announced awards in the contest, which was judged by the Virginia Press Association.

The contest was broken into three divisions – newspaper, magazine and advertising.

“I’m extremely proud of news and advertising staff of Selma’s newspaper,” said Times-Journal Publisher Dennis Palmer. “They do not work as hard as they do serving their community for the recognition such awards bring, but it is nice to see them honored for the work they do.”

Of the awards won by the Times-Journal, 11 were first place awards and included:

• Best spot news story – “Not the Selma I grew up in” by Blake Deshazo

• Best business story or column – “What happened: St. James Hotel boarded up” by Justin Averette

• Best sports news in-depth coverage – “Champs” by Thomas Scott and Alaina Deshazo

• Best sports feature story – “1977 Selma team looks back on championship” by Daniel Evans

• Best local sports column – “Celebration long overdue for Concordia basketball” by Daniel Evans

• Best feature photo – “Purple Rain” by Alaina Deshazo

• Best spot news photo – “Not the Selma I grew up in” by Alaina Deshazo

• Online breaking news coverage – “Not the Selma I grew up in” by Blake Deshazo

• Best single ad over half page color – “International Paper renewable resources” by staff

• Best innovative online advertising (single ad) – “Preferred Eyecare” by staff

• Best advertising campaign or series – Boyd Financial” by staff

Sixty-two newspapers participated in the newspaper contest with 39 participating in the advertising contest and 24 in the magazine contest. Additional awards will be announced in July at the Alabama Press Association’s summer convention in Orange Beach.