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The 2019-20 Texas Better Newspaper Contest featured 18 categories – the most in the con-test’s history.

Categories added this year included Online Live Coverage and Public Notice. In addition, a special section category was changed to a mag-azine category.

Participating newspapers were invited to submit entries from work published between Sept. 1, 2019 and Aug. 31, 2020.

Entries were judged by members of the Wisconsin Press Association while Texas Press Association member volunteers judged entries in the Wisconsin Press Contests.

Awards were presented on June 12, 2021, at the TPA Convention & Trade Show in Denton.

The Orange Leader received:

Editorial 1st Place

Advertising 2nd Place

Best Magazine 2nd Place

General Excellence 2nd Place

Special Section 2nd Place

The editorial awarded was “Reopening Texas is not business as usual” from May 20, 2020.

The judges commented on General Excellence, “This is a nice overall newspaper, and I love the front page stories, pictures and layout design.”

The Special Section submitted was Progress 2020. This section is published once a year and promotes accomplishments of local business, industries and organizations within the community.

A judge commented, “The front page is a solid layout and easily caught my eye. Good use of photographs and stories throughout. There are some white spaces that could have been arranged or used differently, but otherwise the entire section has good layout.”

Orange Living Magazine, a quarterly publication, received 2^nd Place for Best Magazine for the Summer 2020 edition.

“Creative page layouts and topical content,” a judge noted.