PHILLIPSBURG — “It is my pleasure to inform you of your newspaper’s KPA 2018 Awards of Excellence results,” began the recent email to the Phillips County Review from Emily Bradbury, the incoming Executive Director of the Kansas Press Association.

Following that introduction, Bradbury’s communication then proceeded to list winners of the KPA’s annual Awards of Excellence contest that pits Kansas’s 240 or so newspapers against one another in a variety of categories, with the top publications recognized as being the best in their fields at what they do.

With the Phillips County Review participating  in the contest as a weekly with a circulation of 1500 and under, the majority of those 240 newspapers in the state consist of local publications similar in size and circulation to the Phillips County Review.  Surmounting the obstacle of a large number of competitors, in 2016 the Phillips County Review won KPA awards in five categories for reporting, photography and advertising.

Following up on that, in 2017 the Review won in nine categories for reporting, photography, advertising, editorial pages and column writing.

And now with the release of the 2018 judging results the Phillips County Review has eclipsed those previous numbers by taking in a total of 21 different awards.

The wins this year were so encompassing that the Review nearly swept three different reporting categories, winning two out of three awards possible in them.

With those 21 different awards the Review again took honors, as it has in previous years, in categories of news reporting, investigative reporting, photography, advertising, editorial pages, and column writing.  This year it also repeated in those same categories and added new wins in categories of editorial writing, sports writing, sports page layout, news and writing excellence, and design and layout excellence.

This year’s awards, which includes material appearing in the newspaper between Jan. 1, 2017 and Oct. 31, 2017, includes:

Best Editorial Writing
This is a first time category win for the Phillips County Review.  Judging for it is based on local impact, reasoning, writing excellence and leadership shown through the editorials.

The highest honors possible in the state of Kansas for newspapers in this category was won by Kirby Ross of the Review.  Three different original editorials written by Ross were reviewed by KPA judges in order to assure there was an ongoing consistency in the high quality of writing required to win this award.

This is a brand new category for the Kansas Press Association this year.  A spot news photo is one taken at an unplanned event, such as a car crash, fire, explosion, etc. Judging is based on timeliness, impact and technical quality.

Kirby Ross won first place honors for Kansas newspapers in this category for his photograph encaptioned “DESTRUCTION” that was taken at the site of the Husky Hogs fire near Long Island last June.

This photo was originally presented across all six columns of the newspaper, and depicted Husky Hogs owner Terry Nelson running a track loader clearing debris caused by the catastrophic fire to his facility that killed over 9,000 hogs.

While winning first place for his photograph relating to this story, Ross also won third place for the news report that went along with it (see below).  At the time of the fire this photograph, as well as a version of Ross’ related article, also ran on the Hays Post website.

In this category judging is based on hard news photography for an event that’s planned ahead of time, such as court hearings, trials, news conferences, and city council meetings.  Judging is based on timeliness, impact and technical quality.

Kirby Ross won first place honors for Kansas newspapers in this category for his photograph encaptioned “Wowza!” that was taken of Phillipsburg Elementary School third graders wearing protective glasses while watching last August’s solar eclipse.

Best News Reporting (x2)
In this category judging is based on community importance of event, timeliness, thoroughness of reporting and writing style.

Kirby Ross was determined to have written the second best and third best news stories in their newspaper categories for the state of Kansas in 2017.

The second place win for Ross for news reporting was for his story entitled “Inmates Riot at Norton.”  At over 100 column inches long, the story included a comprehensive overview on the origins of the rioting, how the rioting unfolded and progressed, the riot’s aftermath, how the rioting involved Phillips County, how law enforcement across the state reacted to it, how elected and other public officials officials reacted to it, and how the national media reported on it.

The third place win for Ross for news reporting was for his story entitled “Dangerous Fire Sweeps Through Hog Complex.” A photograph taken by Ross that ran with this story won first place for Best Spot News Photograph (see above).

Ross’ news report on this fire began by laying out the importance of Husky Hogs to the economy of Phillips County, then proceeded to provide an overview of the site of the fire and how it started, the number of fire departments that responded to it, descriptions of the multiple buildings that were affected, the dollar value of the damage, the number of hogs killed, and how the difficult blaze ended up having to be fought.

For the second year in a row the Phillips County Review won Kansas Press Association accolades for investigative reporting.  Last year the Review won one award for investigative reporting; this year it won two awards for two different unrelated stories.

In this category, judging is based on writing style, community importance of event, impact, enterprise and thoroughness of reporting.

Kirby Ross of the Review won second place honors for Kansas newspapers in this category for his work relating to a press release issued by Phillips County Hospital last February that the hospital is still being defended to this day.

The hospital had earlier purchased multi-million dollar computer software without undergoing a competitive bidding process, resulting in considerable critical blowback in the community.  Months later the hospital issued a press release that asserted it had revisited the purchase of the software and had recently conducted a competitive bidding process.  Without naming the parties to the bids, the press release claimed four bids had been received, that one of the bids had been accepted, and that the terms of the purchase of the software had been rolled up into a “new contract.”

By state law, bidding processes by government agencies are subject to public disclosure.  Pursuant to state law (the Kansas Open Records Act), the Phillips County Review began looking into the claims asserted in the press release.  When the Review asked for the bid specs and and copies of the four bids the hospital claimed it had received, the Review hit a brick wall.

In the resulting award-winning article, the Review reported the hospital initially outright refused to provide the specs and the four bids, with the hospital claiming, in writing, that the types of bids they received weren’t the type of bids that had to be released to the public.

Phillips County Hospital CEO Rex Walk of Frisco, Texas, subsequently told the Review that no bids were received.  Walk had difficulty reconciling that position with the position taken in the press release, but did say the press release should not have been sent out.  The issue of the bids remains unresolved.

Also reported in this same award-winning article, the Review further looked into the second part of the hospital press release that spoke of a “new contract” relating to the multi-million dollar software.  When the Review made a written request for a copy of the new contract, the hospital responded in writing by saying there was no new contract.  In the face of the hospital’s own press release and two more written requests from the Review, the hospital finally said that there was a new contract, but that it was an old contract.

Kirby Ross also won a second 2018 KPA investigative reporting award, this one for third place honors, for his reporting on local and regional gas price jumps related to Hurricane Harvey.

This story tracked a 17 percent local increase in gasoline pricing in Phillipsburg that took place in five jumps over the course of three days, and compared those increases with increases in seven other north-central Kansas communities, including Hays, as well as the state of Kansas and the nation as a whole.

This is a third category that the Phillips County Review nearly swept, winning two out of the top three spots in the state for newspapers the Review was in competition with.

In this category judging is based on local impact, writing style, originality and enterprise.

Kirby Ross won second place honors for reporting done in a story entitled “Public Voices Concern re: New Controlled Burn Rules.”

This story reported on a controversial decision by Phillips County Commissioners to change controlled burn procedures in the county.  The measure passed by a vote of 2 to 1, but was never actually implemented due to a major grassroots backlash.  After a county commissioner’s meeting was attended by very vocal opponents, the controlled burn procedure changes were subsequently rescinded.

Kirby Ross also took third place honors for Kansas newspapers in this same Government and Political Reporting category for an article he ran entitled “County’s Legislators Split Medicaid Vote.”

This story related to efforts in the Kansas Legislature to expand Medicaid, and how two of Phillips County’s legislators — Bowers and Billinger — voted for it, and one — Rahjes — voted against it.

The story detailed how the legislation was strongly supported by the Kansas Hospital Association and the National Rural Health Association, which stated the law was crucial to helping rural hospitals survive.

The reporting told of how the bill passed both houses of the legislature, but was vetoed by the governor. Supporters of the bill then were unable to override the veto.

The Phillips County Review’s award-winning story encompassed over 60 column inches, and included graphics on the voting and quotes from Phillips County’s legislators and other Kansas lawmakers.

The story outlined the Kansas Hospital Association’s position that Kansas had lost $1.7 billion to date by failing to expand Medicare, and that passing the bill would have brought $58 million in medical-related funding into the 36th and 40th Senate Districts, both of which encompass Phillips County (the 36th covers the eastern two-thirds of Phillips County; the 40th covers the western one-third).

In addition to winning in the Government/Political reporting category, the above-referenced story entitled “County’s Legislators Split Medicaid Vote” also won Kirby Ross a third place KPA award for Health reporting.

Judging in this Health reporting category is based on writing style, community importance, originality and enterprise.

As already noted, the other above-referenced Government and Political award article — “Public Voices Concern re: New Controlled Burn Rule” — won a writing award as a single stand-alone story.  That single story was also part of a broader series of reports that included three other related controlled burn rule change stories that ran over the course of six weeks that reported the entire process from start to finish.

This string of articles won Kirby Ross a third place award for series reporting.

In this Best Series Reporting category judging is based on writing style, reader interest, enterprise and thoroughness of reporting.

In this category judging is based on writing style, originality and reader interest.  Three different columns from throughout 2017 were reviewed by KPA judges in order to assure there was an ongoing consistency in the high quality of writing required to win this award.

For the second year in a row, the highest honors in the state of Kansas in this category was won by columnist Karen Madorin.  Madorin, formerly of Ellis and Logan, also writes for the Hays Post.

The Review is a repeat winner for Kansas newspapers in this category, having won second place in 2017 and now again in 2018.

Judging is based on editorial content, leadership, community interest, impact and layout and design.

This award is independent of the Editorial Writing award also won by the Review (see above).  The Editorial Writing award was for the quality of specific individual editorials written by a Review staff member; the Editorial Pages award is for the quality of everything that appears on the editorial page, as well as the editorial page design.

Judging for this award is based on general interest, writing style and originality.

Review sportswriter David Steinle won second place honors in this category for a story entitled “Panther Gridders Ready To Roar in ‘17” which ran just prior to this year’s Phillipsburg Panthers winning football season.
The article provided an overview of this year’s football team, along with its strengths and overall prospects for the season that was about to begin.

The Panthers were in the midst of its post-season playoff run at the time judging for this category was taking place, and the story had aged extremely well.

Judging in this category is based on layout, use of photos and graphics, and variety of articles.

The Phillips County Review won second place honors for Kansas newspapers in this category for the work done primarily by Cheri Parks, Jacque Bretton and David Steinle.

Judging is based on an advertisement for a candidate, ballot issue, political party or other political advertiser.

Kirby Ross and Cheri Parks shared first place Kansas Press Association honors for a political campaign ad built for a mayoral candidate in the recent election.

Judging is based on a newspaper’s online promotion.

The Review won first place for its advertisement promoting the online edition of the Phillips County Review. The ad is headed by the phrase “Your local Newspaper The ORIGINAL Hand-held Information Device.”

Judging is based on the best single ad or series of ads promoting subscriptions, advertising or a specific aspect/department of the newspaper.

The Phillips County Review won second place honors for Kansas newspapers in this category for an ad touting the fact the Review has been around for over 95 years. “We are here today. We will be here tomorrow,” it notes.  The same ad also lays out the array of Kansas Press Association Awards of Excellence the Review won last year.

Judging in this category is based on originality and effectiveness of headlines, appropriateness for story subject and layout of headlines.

The Phillips County Review won third place honors for Kansas newspapers in this category.

This is an overall evaluation of the newspaper’s design and layout.  Judging is based on layout and design of every page, use of white space, font selections and use of photos and graphics.

Cheri Parks receives primary credit for the third place honors the Phillips County Review won in this category.

This is an overall evaluation of the newspaper’s news and writing ability.  Judging is based on writing styles, originality, headlines and general interest.

The Review took third place in this category.  Credit for this award goes to the variety of local writers who contribute to the content of the Phillips County Review.