What the judges said

The Marion Star received an honorable mention in the General Excellence category in the Ohio State Associated Press contest this weekend. It's our first General Excellence placing since I became editor in Dec. of 2004.
Here is what the judges said:

The Marion Star certainly deserves a pat on the
back for the excellent job it does for the
community and readers. Like the other winners
in this category, the judging panel felt this was
a paper all of us would be glad to pick up and
read even if we weren't judging it. Its local
content was strong, nicely written and generally
well presented. The design is clean and employs
a number of layering techniques which help
drive the reader inside and to the paper's
Website. We found it to be extremely well
organized and easy to navigate. Its presentation
of the Virginia Tech shooting was solid,
enhanced by a good local sidebar. One of the
things we particularly liked was the Blue
Ribbons special section showing the winners of
the All Junior Fair. This is the sort of community
journalism that breeds reader loyalty in an era
when far too many papers have lost touch with
their readers. It should be noted that from first
place to honorable mention, the judging panel
felt all four finalist papers in this category were
separated in quality by little more than a hair's
breadth and we hope all of the communities
these papers serve realize how lucky they are.

What was most gratifying is that all of the things the judges mentioned are things were are working hard to do... Hurray for us!