The Nevada Appeal earned 11 awards at the 2010 Better Newspaper Contest last week, including Ad of the Year.
The Nevada Press Association conducts the contest each year with four competition classes based on circulation size. The Nevada Appeal competes in Class 1, which includes the Reno Gazette-Journal, Las Vegas Review Journal and the Las Vegas Sun.
The ad that took home the top accolade was created by key account manager Rob Galloway and designer Joanna Vernarecci for Local's BBQ. It showed the barbecue restaurant's message on "scorched" newsprint.
"Those are the ones that stuck out, the specialty-shaped ads," Galloway said. "Those are the ones that did very well for the customer."
Galloway and Vernarecci also swept the Best Multi-Color Ad category for "Wednesday Wing Night," "Tech Plumbing" and "The LED light.com."
The Nevada Appeal advertising staff also took home first place in the Best Special Section Advertising category for the 2009 football guide.
The judges also awarded the Nevada Appeal second place for Advertising General Excellence, with judges commenting that the newspaper is a "good size, easy to read, ads paginated well, back page full ads are a standout."
Advertising also earned a third place award for its "Carson City In Focus" spring and summer edition by Terri Thomas and the Sierra Nevada Media Group and an honorable mention for "Real Heroes 2010 - American Red Cross" by Galloway, Jessica Weisser and the Sierra Nevada Media Group.
Nevada Appeal sportswriter Darrell Moody took home a third place for best sports column, and Joe Santoro won second place in non-staff columns, for Friday Fodder.
Judges praised Moody's work as a "strong collection of opinionated local columns."
Judges said Santoro "brings together a wealth of information and in short order strings them along coherently, adding his own witty and sharp comments."
Former Nevada Appeal photographer Cathleen Allison won an honorable mention for Best Feature Photo titled, "Last chance for summer fun."
Nevada Appeal Publisher Niki Gladys said her team is, "by far more talented than any group I've worked with," adding, "I'm just really proud of our staff."
The Appeal's sister publications in the region also won a number of awards in their classes, including second place for The Record-Courier in the general excellence category in Class 2.