The Vicksburg Post brings home 14 awards at Better Newspaper Contest

The Vicksburg Post and Vicksburg Living hauled in 14 awards — including five first-place winners — in 12 categories in the Mississippi Press Association’s 2023 Better Newspaper Contest.

Vicksburg Living, and its editor Terri Cowart Frazier, was recognized as Mississippi’s best periodical published by the state’s multi-day papers.

The Vicksburg Post finished third in the General Excellence category among newspapers in the Class B division, and its sports section was third among all of the state’s multi-day newspapers.

Class B in the contest include the state’s mid-size multiple-day newspapers. The contest winners were announced at the Mississippi Press Association’s summer convention held June 27-29 in Biloxi.

Twenty-eight newsrooms entered nearly 1,500 entries into 35 categories during this year’s contest. It was judged this spring by volunteers from the Louisiana Press Association.

Sports editor Ernest Bowker won 11 awards for his writing and photography — four first-place awards, four seconds and four thirds.

“The Vicksburg Post is blessed with a talented and creative staff and I am so proud of the newspaper’s showing at the Mississippi Press Association 2023 awards,” President and Publisher Catherine Hadaway said. “The journalists on our team work tirelessly to share stories about the people and places that make Vicksburg and Warren County the special place we call home, and it is rewarding to see others recognize their work.”

Bowker won first place in the Class B General News Photograph category for his photo of a copy of the movie “Hope Floats” scattered amongst debris following the Rolling Fork tornado in March 2023.

Bowker won two more photo awards in the Sports Feature Photo category for a picture of St. Aloysius softball player Kyleigh Cooper sliding into a base; and for Pictorial Series for his coverage of the Bayou Independent Wrestling show at the Ardis T. Williams Auditorium.

Bowker’s other first-place award came in the Sports Column category. That category included all multi-day newspapers in Mississippi.

Bowker’s second-place awards were in the Sports Feature Story, Sports Feature Photo, Sports Action Photo, and Magazine Story categories. The latter was for his Vicksburg Living story on the former Po Boy Don’s restaurant in Tallulah.

Bowker’s third-place awards were in the Sports News Story, Game Story and Sports Action Photo categories.