Published: June 20, 2009 10:53 pm      

Star staffers claim four prizes at MPA

Higginbotham, Carmichael claim first place awards

From staff reports



Staff members of The Meridian Star claimed four prizes Saturday at the Mississippi Press Association’s annual Better Newspaper Contest.

The awards luncheon was held in Biloxi at the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino, ending the MPA’s three-day annual conference.

Meridian Star Editor Fredie Carmichael won first place as the top Commentary Columnist — a body of work award. The judges singled out Carmichael’s column “The profound words of Dr. King will never die.” Carmichael’s columns beat out writers from the Natchez Democrat, Vicksburg Post, Enterprise-Journal and other newspapers in the midsize daily division of papers between 10,000 and 20,000 average daily circulation.

Meridian Star Sports Editor Rocky Higginbotham won first place for a story about the Noxubee County high school football championship. The story appeared in The Beacon (Macon) and won in the midsize weekly division, beating out stories written by writers from the Southern Sentinel and The Sun Sentinel. Higginbotham also claimed a second place award in the midsize daily division for a game story about Southeast Lauderdale’s basketball championship.

Managing Editor Steve Gillespie won a third place award for the Best General Interest Columnist in the midsize daily division — also a body of work category.

Former Star staff writer Chris Allen Baker, now at The Scott County Times, a weekly newspaper, won the MPA’s top award, the Bill Minor Award. His award was for the reporting of a 4-year-old in Ludlow who was starved to death.

The general excellence award went to the state’s largest newspaper, The Clarion Ledger.