Hoch Publishing Company, publisher of the Marion County Record, Hillsboro Star-Journal, and Peabody Gazette-Bulletin, has won 23 awards in the Kansas Press Association 2014 Awards of Excellence.

“I’m particularly pleased to win first place for news and writing excellence,” news editor David Colburn said. “In addition to weekly newspapers, we were up against ‘daily’ papers from much larger towns that now publish four times a week or less, such as Atchison, El Dorado, Augusta, and Junction City. This is a team award, and it’s good to know we’re on the right track in giving our readers high-quality coverage of our county.”

Hoch Publishing won 10 first-place awards, including: news and writing excellence, best use of photos, religion story, special section — editorial, special section — advertising, most adaptable promotion, and for agricultural, health care, hardward, and house ads.

The newspapers also received 10 second-place awards and three third-place awards.

“Winning six more awards than last year speaks to the fact that we’re always looking for ways to improve what we give to our readers and advertisers,” Colburn said. “We’re pleased to see our efforts recognized, but we’d like to do even better next year.”

The awards are divided into six categories, based on circulation and how often a paper is published. Hoch Publishing won its awards in the mid-size non-daily division.

This year’s entries were judged by the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association.

Awards

First place

• Agricultural ad, Melvin Honeyfield

• Best use of photos
• Hardware ad, Debbie Steele
• Health care ad, Debbie Steele
• House ad, Melvin Honeyfield
• Most adaptable promotion, staff
• News and writing excellence, staff
• Religion story, Oliver Good
• Special section — advertising
• Special section — editorial

Second place

• Front page
• Furniture ad, Melvin Honeyfield
• Grocery ad, Melvin Honeyfield
• Headline writing, Eric Meyer
• Feature photo, David Colburn
• Photo package
• Special section — editorial
• Sports column writing, Eliot Sill
• Sports pages
• Youth story, David Colburn

Third place

• Column writing, Eliot Sill
• Feature photo, Oliver Good
• Editorial pages