The Lawrence Journal-World won 14 first-place awards in the annual Kansas Professional Communicators Communications Contest.

The awards, which honor excellence in communication, were announced April 8 at the “Euphoria in Emporia” conference in Emporia.

The newspaper also won eight second-place awards, two third-place awards and one honorable mention.

First-place winners are:

¢ Social issues: Mindie Paget, “‘Native Voices’ breaks silence” and “Identity war.”

¢ Headline writing: Paget.

¢ Original graphics: Paget.

¢ Page layout: Paget.

¢ Section edited by entrant – frequent: Paget.

¢ Sections/supplements edited by entrant – infrequent: Paget, KU Edition entertainment tab.

¢ Arts & entertainment: Jon Niccum, “Very Bad Things” and “Return of the Kings.”

¢ Reviews: Jon Niccum, “Filmmakers late with ‘Rent'” and “‘Star Wars’ saga concludes with plunge into dark side.”

¢ Personality profile: Terry Rombeck, “They call him Batman.”

¢ Health: Rombeck, “Off the pavement and into the gym” and “Sick daze.”

¢ Religion: Rombeck, “Big stakes in Lawrence” and “Seal of approval.”

¢ Education: Rombeck, “Motherhood may derail tenure-track faculty” and “Donor rolls often hold clues on regents picks.”

¢ Editorial/opinion: Ann Gardner, “Political choice.”

¢ Single page/pages regularly edited by entrant: Gardner.

First-place state winners advance to the national competition, sponsored by the National Federation of Press Women.

Second-place winners are: Paget, page layout, photography in printed publication other than newspaper, section edited by entrant – frequent, health and review; Niccum, arts & entertainment and personality profile; Gardner, editorial/opinion.

Third-place winners are: Paget, arts & entertainment and personality profile.

Rombeck also received an honorable mention.

Other Lawrence-based writers received first-place recognition for their work. Sue Novak took highest honors in the informational/personal column category. Carol Francis won for speech writing.

Additionally, high school students in the Lawrence area received awards in the 2006 All-Kansas Write-Off, a youth journalism competition sponsored by Kansas Professional Communicators and the Kansas Scholastic Press Assn.

About 220 students from 10 high schools statewide entered the contest, which was judged by a collection of working and retired Kansas media professionals. The contest included 17 writing, photography and design categories spanning newspaper, yearbook and desktop publishing.

Winners include:

¢ Newspaper editorial: Erin Levy (Bishop Seabury Academy), third place.

¢ Graphics: Erin Levy, Christopher Neal, Jenn Crawford, Laura Gauch and Shiv Subramaniam (Bishop Seabury Academy), honorable mention.

¢ Yearbook – double-page spread: Kate Mather (Lawrence High School), honorable mention.