Hometown papers bring home awards

Shauna Belyeu, General Manager of the Eufaula Indian Journal and the McIntosh County Democrat, was named president of the Oklahoma Press Association during its annual convention held Friday and Saturday, June 7-8, at the Sheraton Hotel in Oklahoma City. She will serve a one-year term, replacing out-going president Sheila Gay, publisher of the Woodward News.

Previously, Belyeu was vice president of the OPA Board of Directors.

“It is an honor to serve in the Association alongside such great people and mentors and the opportunity to continue to work with the outstanding staff who represent our state so well,” Belyeu said.

Belyeu has worked at the Eufaula Indian Journal (the oldest continuously published newspaper in the state) and the McIntosh County Democrat for 25 years. She has worked in advertising, advertising manager and has served as General Manager since 2007.

Eufaula native J.C. Watts, a former U.S. representative, Oklahoma Hall of Fame inductee and life-long newspaper advocate, was the keynote speaker for the Saturday morning opening of the convention.

Watts discussed the importance of words and the state of the country.

“We have to be willing to see from the other side’s perspective to see the whole picture,” Watts said.

He said that here in America, we’ve lost our ‘wow’ because we are so concerned about finding blame. He spoke a message of bringing the culture back together.

“There’s so much pressure on the left wing and the right wing that the poor bird is dying,” Watts said.

He said society values teamwork, on the battlefield, in the home, in sports and in the workplace.

After a full day of classes, newspapers from across the state gathered at the banquet for the highlight of the evening.

The Eufaula Indian Journal and the McIntosh County Democrat, both a part of the Cookson Hills Publishers’ family of nine community newspapers, took home several top honors at the OPA’s weekend convention.

The Journal and the Democrat took home two first place awards, five second place and four third place.

“I am proud of our hometown papers and our staff. We have a small but powerful group who covers and promotes our great communities. They deserve award recognition weekly for all of their hard work,” Belyeu said.

The OPA presented its Better Newspaper Contest Awards during the convention.

The Journal and the Democrat were among the papers from across the state who were judged by the Oregon Press Association and recognized Saturday night.

The Journal brought home first place in advertising, second place in layout and design and sports photography and third place in editorials and sales promotions.

The Democrat brought home first place in Sales Promotions with the Gridiron Guide, second place with sports coverage and third place in advertising along with second and third place with La-Donna Rhodes’ feature photographs.

Rhodes is a reporter and columnist with the Democrat.

The Sequoyah Award, which is the highest honor in the Better Newspaper Contest, is determined by the number of points accumulated in eight of the contest’s categories: news content, layout & design, advertising, editorial writing, photography, sports coverage, sales promotion, and community leadership.

Sequoyah Award winners in the OPA Better Newspaper Contest also were announced at the OPA Convention. In the divisions for daily and online-only publications, winners were The Norman Transcript and Tahlequah Daily Press. Sequoyah winners in the weekly divisions were the El Reno Tribune, Midwest City Beacon, Choctaw Times, The Purcell Register, The Keystone Gusher, and Minco-Union City Times.

Also announced during the two-day convention were the recipients of the OPA H. Milt Phillips Award and the

Oklahoma Newspaper Foundation’s Beachy Musselman Award.

Receiving the H. Milt Phillips Award was James O. Goodwin, publisher of The Oklahoma Eagle in Tulsa. The OPA Board of Directors selects the recipient of the Milt Phillips Award.

Goodwin is a lifelong Tulsan, an accomplished attorney and the owner of Tulsa’s only blackowned newspaper, The Oklahoma Eagle, which the Goodwin family has owned since 1936.