Davis, Petaluma and Los Banos papers top rural winners in California contest

The Davis Enterprise and the weekly Petaluma Argus-Courier and Los Banos Enterprise were the general-excellence winners among small newspapers in the California Newspaper Publishers Association contest, which handed out awards last week.

The Davis paper easily won the award in the classification for dailies with 10,000 circulation or less, which is most likely to include rural papers, and the Auburn Journal placed second. The two papers likewise finished 1-2 among editorial pages. Davis won for writing, but Auburn won for breaking news; Davis placed second in local news coverage, behind the Lompoc Record.  The Daily Triplicate of Crescent City, on the far north coast, won for investigative or enterprise reporting and placed second in breaking news. Davis won first and second for environmental and/or agricultural resource reporting, perhaps no surprise because its town is home to the University of California's leading agriculture progams.

Among weeklies with circulations of 4,301 to 11,000, the Petaluma paper, in Sonoma County, won for editorial pages, local news coverage and layout and design. Its second-place awards included Web site and editorial cartoon, above, by Steve Rustad. The Half Moon Bay Review in San Mateo County placed second in general excellence.

The Los Banos paper, which won the general-excellence award among weeklies with circulations of 4,300 or less, is published in Merced County, which is also home to the Merced Sun-Star, which won several awards in the 10,000-25,000 daily classification, including second for general excellence, behind the Daily Republic of Fairfield.

For a complete list of winners, and many examples of their work, download the special section from the CNPA Web site.