From Staff Reports

NEW ORLEANS — The Natchez Democrat won 23 total awards Saturday at the Mississippi Press Association’s annual conference, including first place in general excellence and community service.

Publisher Kevin Cooper also won the J. Oliver Emmerich Award for Editorial Excellence for the 2014 editorial of the year in the state. The honor is the highest given for editorial writing in Mississippi, among all newspapers of all sizes.

Cooper’s winning editorial scolded state Sen. Melanie Sojourner for repeated absences during the Mississippi legislative session.

The newspaper’s first place award for community service recognized the regular Monday  “You Asked; Please Fix” feature, which answers questions about the community submitted by readers and features photos of public properties that need to be fixed.  The newspaper competed against all daily newspapers in Mississippi in the community service category.

In most other categories, The Democrat competes against Mississippi newspapers with a similar circulation size — between 9,000 and 15,000 daily — including The Hattiesburg American, The Vicksburg Post, The Commercial Dispatch (Columbus), The (McComb) Enterprise-Journal and others.

The Democrat staff won 11 first place awards at the joint convention of the Mississippi Press Association and Louisiana Press Association.

First place awards were:

• In-depth/investigative reporting — Vershal Hogan and Kevin Cooper.
• Editorials — Cooper.
• Commentary column —Cooper.
• Feature story — Hogan.
• Sports action photo — Ben Hillyer.
• Sports feature photo — Brittney Lohmiller.
• Photo series — Hillyer.
• Editorial page.
• Design.
• Community service.
• Website.

Second place awards were:

• General news story — Jan Griffey.
• 4Game story — Jake Martin.
• Picture/story combination — Hogan and Sam Gause.
• Graphic — Hillyer.
• Front page.
• Sports section.
• Lifestyle section.
• Magazine periodical — Natchez the Magazine.
•  Best lede — Hogan.

Third place awards were:

• General news story — Rod Guajardo.
• Spot news photo — Gause.
• Sports action photo —Hillyer.

Fifty-seven Mississippi newspapers submitted 2,704 entries in the Better Newspaper Contest.

In a separate Saturday ceremony hosted in conjunction with MPA, The Democrat won 24 awards, including eight first place awards, in the annual Mississippi/Louisiana Associated Press Media Editors contest.

The Democrat competes against like-sized newspapers in Mississippi and Louisiana in this competition.

First place awards were:

• General news story —Hogan.
• Feature story — Hogan.
• Sports feature story —Martin.
• Best headlines
• General news photo — Ben Hillyer.
• Feature photo — Hillyer.
• Personality portrait — Gause.
• Sports feature photo — Lohmiller.

Second place awards were:

• Spot news story — Guajardo.
• General news story — Guajardo.
• Sports columns — Martin.
• Layout — Hillyer.
• Spot news photo — Gause.
• General news photo — Hillyer.
• Feature photo — Hillyer.
• Photo series — Lohmiller.
• Personality portrait — Hillyer.
• Sports feature — Thomas Graning.
• Best website.

Third place awards:

• General news photo — Gause.
• Feature photo — Lohmiller.
• Photo illustration — Hillyer.
• Personality portrait — Hillyer.
• Sports feature photo — Hillyer.