Record wins 2 first places

The San Marcos Daily Record won First Place in General Excellence and First Place for Best Website in its division at the 2018 Texas Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest. Winners were announced Saturday morning.

“I’m so proud of the staff,” Daily Record Publisher Lance Winter said. “It was a great team effort.”

General excellence covers all aspects of the paper — news writing, photography, sports coverage, advertising and page design.

TPA judges complimented the Daily Record website’s “cleanliness of it all paired with being committed to responsive material.” The judges noted that as the number of mobile users increases, it is important to have “a responsive site that is clean and desktop mobile sizes.”

The Daily Record also came away with second place awards for advertising and news writing and a third place in page design.

In comments on the Daily Record’s news writing, judges said, “Well-researched historical perspective on the decision by the local school board to be among the first in Texas to integrate following the federal court order more than 60 years ago. Story on neighborhood damaged by flooding with little help with recovery was also handled well.”

The newspaper also came in third in the contest Sweepstakes, where winners are determined using a point system based on the number and rank of awards received.

The Daily Record competes in Division 3. Its sister newspaper The Wimberley View, which competes in Division 7 of the TPA awards, won second place for news photo, third place for sports coverage and third place for headline writing.