STAFF REPORTS

Kyle and Buda’s only locally owned newspaper, the Hays Free Press, racked up honors at the South Texas Press Association annual conference last weekend, winning first place awards in General Excellence, News Coverage, Family/Social Pages and Community Service.

In addition, the newspaper won third in the sweepstakes for all contest categories combined with 500 points, behind first place Rockdale Reporter with 675 points and second place Port Aransas South Jetty with 650 points.

Other awards for the Hays Free Press include second place in  Serious Column Writing by Svea Sauer, second place in News Photography with Cyndy Slovak-Barton’s photo of Kyle Fire Chief Glenn Whitaker walking away from a wreck scene and Sean Kimmons’ photo of a house fire, and third place in Page Design, with staffer David White in charge of the production for the newspaper.

The first place award for News Coverage includes honors to Jen Biundo for her stories on Sex Ed in Hays CISD schools. The first place for Community Service was awarded for the newspaper’s overall coverage of the drought of 2009.
The judge for the General Excellence category said about the Hays Free Press, “Excellent, excellent, excellent. This is a solid paper. This is what it’s all about. Thank you! Solid writing, photos, layout is clean.
No. 1 by a mile. No smoke and mirrors – all substance!”

Other comments by judges: Family/Social Pages, “ Nice, clean cover design… Good mix of local news and photos”; News Coverage, “Sex Ed – good treatment of a sensitive topic”; Serious Column Writing, “The columns submitted by Svea Sauer show cleverness, admirable writing style and a determined ‘hold ‘em accountable’ stance. Ms. Sauer does an excellent job of stating her opinion”; News Photo, “Fatality/Drug deal – good spot news image. I like the focus on the firefighter. The mangled mess in the background speaks for itself. The look of concern on the firefighter speaks volumes of the situation”; Page Design, “Airy. Effective use of cut off and column rules carry through from front to back. Nice use of photos.”

Staff members of the Hays Free Press include Managing Editor Jen Biundo, Production Manager David White, Sports Editor Jason Gordon, Business Manager Connie Brewer, Circulation Manager Suzanne Hallam, Advertising Director Tracy Mack, reporters Sean Kimmons and Brad Rollins, Buda Office Manager Sandra Grizzle, sports reporter Mark Caul, education reporter Jim Cullen, proof reader Jane Kirkham and proof reader/columnist Brenda Stewart, production assistant Jorge Garcia, columnists Svea Sauer, Clint Younts, Darryl Jamail, Phil Jones, Myrtle Heideman, Pauline Tom, Donn Brooks and Ed Cherryholmes, and Co-Publishers Bob Barton and Cyndy Slovak-Barton.

The Hays Free Press competes in a category with some of the largest weekly newspapers in the state.