Kenyon Leader takes home five state newspaper awards

The Kenyon Leader took home five awards, including four first place nods, at the Minnesota Newspaper Association’s annual convention, held Thursday night. The Leader competed against weeklies with similar circulation from all over the state as part of MNA’s annual Better Newspaper Contest.
Judges were impressed with the Leader’s website, saying the site’s ease of navigation and reader focus, were highlights in giving the paper a first place award.
Reporter Terri Washburn’s video about the record number of pigs at the Goodhue County Fair also garnered a first place award.
“Short, share-worthy and entertaining,” wrote the judges from the North Carolina Press Association. “Everything a web video should be.”
Rounding out the paper’s other awards were two more first places, for headline writing and advertising excellence, respectively, and a second place award for Terri Washburn’s portrait photography.
“We are very grateful to receive these distinguished awards from the MNA judges,” said Kenyon Leader Publisher and Editor Kristy Jacobson. “It is wonderful to be recognized for our commitment in providing top-notch journalism to the readers of the Kenyon Leader and thekenyonleader.com.”
The Leader’s sister papers also fared well in the annual Better Newspaper Contest. The Northfield News won a total of 11 awards, including use of typography, general reporting, sports reporting, best use of video, special section, columnist, editorial portfolio, photographer’s portfolio, business story, investigative reporting and advertising excellence. The Faribault Daily News won seven awards in the new journalist (first place-dailies), human interest, covering diversity, sports reporting, use of photography, magazine and use of multimedia categories. The Owatonna People’s Press also won advertising excellence awards, for print and online, among six total. It also won new journalist (second place-dailies), general reporting, design portfolio and explanation of news operations. The weekly Waseca County News won awards for best use of video, new journalist of the year (weekly newspapers) and social issues story. Weekly St. Peter Herald took home awards for editorial page as a whole, sports reporting and use of video. The weeklies LeSueur Herald and LeCenter Leader won awards for general excellence, sports reporting, and headline writing, sports photo, respectively.
In all, the papers won 39 awards.
Huckle Media, LLC, is a family-owned media company that owns area newspapers, websites, shoppers and magazines in Owatonna, Waseca, Faribault, Northfield, St. Peter, Le Sueur, Le Center, Kenyon and Lonsdale, as well as a central printing plant in Northfield.