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LINCOLN — The Nance County Journal is an award-winning newspaper.
The NCJ staff learned Saturday night that they had received five awards in the 2024 Better Newspaper Competition Among the Newspapers of Nebraska. The results of the contest were announced Saturday night at the conclusion of the Nebraska Press Association annual conference.
The staff won first place for General Excellence, a category that looks at the overall product of the newspaper.
NCJ co-owner Rick Holtz received second place awards for Best Digital Ad Idea and for News Writing.
The staff received third place awards for Classifieds Section and for Headline writing.
“It is always nice to be recognized by your peers,” Holtz said. “There were a lot of high quality entries and it was a great opportunity to celebrate all the hard working journalists from around the state.”
The Nance County Journal’s sister newspaper, the Polk County News received seven awards in the contest. They won a second place awards for Sports Section, Website and Single Special Section. They received third place awards for Classifieds Section and Best Use of Social Media. NCJ co-owner Beth Sparrow received a third place award for Breaking News Photography. Holtz received a third place award for Sports Video.
The Nance County Journal was in Division B and the Polk County News was in Division A. More than 2,500 entries were submitted by Nebraska newspapers across five divisions.
In addition to the newspaper contest, the Nebraska Press Association held their annual newspaper conference for member newspapers on Friday and Saturday. The conference brings in speakers for various sessions and gives member newspapers a chance to learn new tricks of the trade and get ideas from other newspapers from around the state.