http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/ChrisCobler/7821 Our "Law and Disorder" coverage appears far from over, but we received some positive reinforcement regarding our 2007 coverage during this weekend's Texas Press Association annual convention. I'm pleased to announce the Advocate won eight awards during the convention and made a strong showing in the overall sweepstakes competition. Congratulations to all of our winners: Community service, first place - 1. Victoria Advocate — “Law enforcement and DA’s office” Strong and sustained context. Great use of public records laws. Effective third-party sourcing for outside, objective perspective. Solid sourcing overall that was fair to all sides. Forceful and reasoned editorials and editor’s commentary. Very fine work. Advertising, first place - 1. Victoria Advocate — “Giant lizard” Great idea. I loved it. Perfect!! Nice job. “Exciting” Nice job! But I have seen this before in other papers in the USA. “Spiderman” I think this is the weakest one of the three. It would have been nice to have maybe a spider web background. Sports photo, T.C. Baker, second place - 2. Victoria Advocate — by T.C. Baker. “Turkey gobbler” A good moment but photo quality or reproduction wasn’t strong enough. Nice job on composition. “Heat warning” I love this photo. It’s so well done it takes me right to the moment. Top notch. General excellence, third place - 3. Victoria Advocate — We liked the front page icons and design of the “bad arrest” centerpiece. We did think the special report on the nuclear plant was too busy and lacked any clear direction. Too many fonts. Page design, third place - 3. Victoria Advocate — Great job illustrating a tough but important issue on 1A. Lots of easy-to-soak-up information. Feature story, Tara Bozick and Sonny Long, honorable mention - 4. Victoria Advocate — “Bad arrest? Victoria case raises questions about justice system” by Tara Bozick. Nice use of timeline, documents, poll for presentation. Interesting read. “Why did she die?” by Sonny Long. Lots of information. Very complete job on reporting. Gave readers their money’s worth on this subject. Editorial writing, honorable mention 4. Victoria Advocate — “Tyler should appoint a special prosecutor” Some redundancies with earlier editorial but keeps a continued focus on an important community story. “Public trust is at stake in Ratliff case” Raises important concerns about conflict of interest and miscarriage of justice. Blue Moon special sections, honorable mention 4. Victoria Advocate — “Victoria going nuclear?” The headline pulls the reader in wanting to know the answer. The information is presented in a clear, concise way. Wonderful use of graphics and photos to balance layout. Sweepstakes, honorable mention -  (We weren't too far off the pace for first. Odessa took first.) Awards are nice, but the real prize is our readers' respect. We know we have to earn that every day. Our "Law and Disorder" coverage appears far from over, but we received some positive reinforcement regarding our 2007 coverage during this weekend's Texas Press Association annual convention. I'm pleased to announce the Advocate won eight awards during the convention and made a strong showing in the overall sweepstakes competition. Congratulations to all of our winners: Community service, first place - 1. Victoria Advocate — “Law enforcement and DA’s office” Strong and sustained context. Great use of public records laws. Effective third-party sourcing for outside, objective perspective. Solid sourcing overall that was fair to all sides. Forceful and reasoned editorials and editor’s commentary. Very fine work. Advertising, first place - 1. Victoria Advocate — “Giant lizard” Great idea. I loved it. Perfect!! Nice job. “Exciting” Nice job! But I have seen this before in other papers in the USA. “Spiderman” I think this is the weakest one of the three. It would have been nice to have maybe a spider web background. Sports photo, T.C. Baker, second place - 2. Victoria Advocate — by T.C. Baker. “Turkey gobbler” A good moment but photo quality or reproduction wasn’t strong enough. Nice job on composition. “Heat warning” I love this photo. It’s so well done it takes me right to the moment. Top notch. General excellence, third place - 3. Victoria Advocate — We liked the front page icons and design of the “bad arrest” centerpiece. We did think the special report on the nuclear plant was too busy and lacked any clear direction. Too many fonts. Page design, third place - 3. Victoria Advocate — Great job illustrating a tough but important issue on 1A. Lots of easy-to-soak-up information. Feature story, Tara Bozick and Sonny Long, honorable mention - 4. Victoria Advocate — “Bad arrest? Victoria case raises questions about justice system” by Tara Bozick. Nice use of timeline, documents, poll for presentation. Interesting read. “Why did she die?” by Sonny Long. Lots of information. Very complete job on reporting. Gave readers their money’s worth on this subject. Editorial writing, honorable mention 4. Victoria Advocate — “Tyler should appoint a special prosecutor” Some redundancies with earlier editorial but keeps a continued focus on an important community story. “Public trust is at stake in Ratliff case” Raises important concerns about conflict of interest and miscarriage of justice. Blue Moon special sections, honorable mention 4. Victoria Advocate — “Victoria going nuclear?” The headline pulls the reader in wanting to know the answer. The information is presented in a clear, concise way. Wonderful use of graphics and photos to balance layout. Sweepstakes, honorable mention -  (We weren't too far off the pace for first. Odessa took first.) Awards are nice, but the real prize is our readers' respect. We know we have to earn that every day. en-us Congratulations to you and your hard-working staff, Mr. Cobler. I would like to mention that a photo by Frank Tilley in the print edition a few days ago of downtown Victoria at dusk is one of the lovliest things I have ever seen. Haven't seen it online, though. I think that pic deserves some kind of award, perhaps at the next convention? Just beautiful. http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/ChrisCobler/7821/#c_54854 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/ChrisCobler/7821/#c_54854 Congratulations to you and your hard-working staff, Mr. Cobler. I would like to mention that a photo by Frank Tilley in the print edition a few days ago of downtown Victoria at dusk is one of the lovliest things I have ever seen. Haven't seen it online, though. I think that pic deserves some kind of award, perhaps at the next convention? Just beautiful. Chris...when are the names of the grand jury members who indicted the city officials for a second time on the perjury charges going to be published on the front page of the paper?  Maybe you can win even more "community service" awards in 2008 for doing that.     http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/ChrisCobler/7821/#c_54858 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/ChrisCobler/7821/#c_54858 Chris...when are the names of the grand jury members who indicted the city officials for a second time on the perjury charges going to be published on the front page of the paper?  Maybe you can win even more "community service" awards in 2008 for doing that.     Sugar Magnolia, It was a gorgeous photo. I'll share your praise with Frank. Thanks. South Texas Guy, We don't have another article planned explaining the grand jury process. We're still discussing routinely publishing the names of grand jury members when they're seated. The information is, of course, public record. http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/ChrisCobler/7821/#c_54859 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/ChrisCobler/7821/#c_54859 Sugar Magnolia, It was a gorgeous photo. I'll share your praise with Frank. Thanks. South Texas Guy, We don't have another article planned explaining the grand jury process. We're still discussing routinely publishing the names of grand jury members when they're seated. The information is, of course, public record. Chris...no argument from me that it is public record.  In explaining the grand jury process, however, couldn't that have been done without naming members of the grand jury?  After all, the process is the same no matter who is on the grand jury, right? Regardless of whether or not it was public record....what purpose was served by naming the members? Also, why are you even discussing the possibility of routinely publishing names?  You have already done it once.  Why wouldn't you do it again and again and again?  Unless, of course.....it was a mistake in the first place. Too bad you had to pick this case...a case in which the Advocate is deeply involved....to start this practice.  Remember, the front page should not be used to advance the Advocate's obviously biased opinion and try to influence public opinion...save that for the Editorial page.         http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/ChrisCobler/7821/#c_54864 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/ChrisCobler/7821/#c_54864 Chris...no argument from me that it is public record.  In explaining the grand jury process, however, couldn't that have been done without naming members of the grand jury?  After all, the process is the same no matter who is on the grand jury, right? Regardless of whether or not it was public record....what purpose was served by naming the members? Also, why are you even discussing the possibility of routinely publishing names?  You have already done it once.  Why wouldn't you do it again and again and again?  Unless, of course.....it was a mistake in the first place. Too bad you had to pick this case...a case in which the Advocate is deeply involved....to start this practice.  Remember, the front page should not be used to advance the Advocate's obviously biased opinion and try to influence public opinion...save that for the Editorial page.         South Texas Guy, Our ethics board agreed we should routinely publish the names, as we used to do. We've been so busy, though, we haven't worked out the logistics of the best way to do that. With so many questions surrounding this particular high-profile case, we thought it was best to get out all of the facts we have available to us. If you know of grand jurors being harassed because of the publicity from this case or any other in which they're names have been published, please let us know. As I stated in a previous post, we'll factor that into our decision. We'll always be biased in favor of getting public information into the newspaper. We'll need a compelling reason to do otherwise. Chris http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/ChrisCobler/7821/#c_54870 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/ChrisCobler/7821/#c_54870 South Texas Guy, Our ethics board agreed we should routinely publish the names, as we used to do. We've been so busy, though, we haven't worked out the logistics of the best way to do that. With so many questions surrounding this particular high-profile case, we thought it was best to get out all of the facts we have available to us. If you know of grand jurors being harassed because of the publicity from this case or any other in which they're names have been published, please let us know. As I stated in a previous post, we'll factor that into our decision. We'll always be biased in favor of getting public information into the newspaper. We'll need a compelling reason to do otherwise. Chris No fair to the other contestants! It's easier to write "forceful and reasoned" editorials when you helped create the conflict in the first place. http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/ChrisCobler/7821/#c_55454 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/ChrisCobler/7821/#c_55454 No fair to the other contestants! It's easier to write "forceful and reasoned" editorials when you helped create the conflict in the first place.