The Lawrence Journal-World won 11 first-place awards in the annual Awards of Excellence competition sponsored by the Kansas Press Assn.

The awards will be presented at the association’s annual meeting Saturday in Lawrence.

The paper took top honors for its front page, use of photos and its Web site, as well as the “From the Ashes” special section celebrating the city’s sesquicentennial.

Bill Snead received three first-place awards: feature package, for his profile of U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran; photo package of Flint Hills Prairie fires; and a feature photo titled “Elvis is Alive in Elkhart.”

Additionally, the Journal-World also took home top honors in:

• Series, for stories by Joel Mathis, Mike Shields and Eric Weslander on how U.S. sanctions against Cuba have fallout back home.
• Local business story, for Chad Lawhorn’s article about Protection One’s arrival in town.


Elvis is alive in Elkhart, by Bill Snead, Journal-World senior editor, earned one of 11 awards given to the Journal-World by the Kansas Press Assn.

• Sports feature story, for Terry Rombeck’s story about a one-legged bicyclist competing for the U.S. team in the Paralympics.
• Infographic, for Chris Royer’s “Name that Boom” explanatory graphic.

KPA awards list Trading with the Enemy? series day 1 Trading with the Enemy? series day 2 Lawhorn story: Protecting its future Rombeck story: Competitive drive, attitude a winning combination Royer graphic: Name that Boom (pdf) Snead feature: Mr. Moran goes to Kansas Special section: From the Ashes

The newspaper also won eight second-place awards, 13 third-place awards and nine honorable mentions:

Second place winners were Scott Rothschild, for government writing; Jon Niccum, in the youth story category; Chuck Woodling, sports column writing; Karrey Britt, for headline writing; Scott McClurg, for sports photography and Thad Allender in the photo illustration category.

Third-place winners were Rombeck, for series writing and education reporting; Snead, for feature writing and agriculture story; Dave Ranney, for investigative reporting; Allender, for photo illustration; Jim Baker and Royer, for infographic; Rothschild, for government writing; Dave Toplikar, for column writing; Woodling, for sports story; Mindie Paget and Allender, for feature package, and Mathis for sports feature story.

Baker, Lawhorn, Paget, Rombeck and Allender received honorable mentions for their work, as did Steve Rottinghaus and Ryan Wood.

The newspaper also received second-place awards for sports page design and general excellence. It received a third-place honor for design and layout.