By Staff
NILES -- Leader Publications won an unprecedented eight awards in the Michigan Press Association's 2003 Better Newspaper Contest.
Winners were announced Monday.
On the advertising side, Leader Publications earned five awards, including a first, second and third place award and two honorable mentions.
Horizons 2003 was awarded first place in the state.
Horizons is published each February and chronicles life in the Niles and Cass County communities.
Diana Kingsley, Leader Publications retail advertising manager in Cass County, earned a second place award for Best Use of Newspaper Art Service for an ad for Lifeworks Center.
Leader Publications General Manager David Compton earned a third place honor in the Best Ad Series category for an advertising campaign he created for Brandywine Public Schools.
Compton's Brandywine ads also won honorable mention in the Best Ad Idea category of the contest.
Leader Publications' Hal Shue, classifed display advertising manager, won an honorable mention in the Best Real Estate Ad category for an advertisement for Niles' Crouch Realty.
On the news side, Leader Publications newspapers won three awards.
Phares was awarded an honorable mention for his column writing.
Scott Novak, sports editor of the Dowagiac Daily News, the Cassopolis Vigilant and Edwardsburg Argus, earned a second place award on a story he wrote about the retirement of long-time Dowagiac High School football coach Bernard Thomas.
Marcia Steffens, editor of the Cassopolis Vigilant, earned an honorable mention for Page One design of that paper.
Leader Publications publishes the Niles Daily Star, Dowagiac Daily News, Edwardsburg Argus and Cassopolis Vigilant, as well as The Leader, a weekly shoppers' guide which is distributed in Cass and Berrien Counties in Michigan as well as in the Clay Township area of Northern Indiana.