SNPA recognizes excellence in print quality

SNPA recognized excellence in newspaper printing at its News Industry Summit.  First-place awards in the SNPA Print Quality Contest were presented to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Little Rock; The Villages Daily Sun, The Villages, Fla.; The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va.; and The Telegraph, Nashua, N.H.

Newspapers were judged in four circulation categories:  under 25,000 circulation; 25,001-50,000; 50,001-100,000; and over 100,000.  Judges evaluated entries only for those quality attributes that can be objectively measured: black ink density and uniformity, color ink density and uniformity, color register, page alignment, litho defects and other defects.

2014 Print Quality Contest Winners

In the Under 25,000 circulation category:

1^st place:        The Telegraph, Nashua, N.H.
2^nd place:       Independent Tribune, Concord, N.C.
3^rd place:        The Daily Home, Talladega, Ala.

In the 25,001 - 50,000 circulation category:

1^st place:        The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va.
2^nd place:       The Eagle-Tribune, North Andover, Mass.
3^rd place:        Savannah Morning News, Savannah, Ga.

In the 50,001 - 100,000 circulation category:

1^st place:        The Villages Daily Sun, The Villages, Fla.
                       (view a video from Southern Lithoplate)
2^nd place:       The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.
3^rd place:        The Wall Street Journal
                        (printed by The Ledger, Lakeland, Fla.)

In the over 100,000 circulation category:

1^st place:        Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Little Rock, Ark.
2^nd place:       Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Va.
3^rd place:        The Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas

The annual Print Quality Contest and Evaluation is chaired by Kevin Conner, quality assurance manager of The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.

Marked newspapers and judges' evaluation forms will be mailed to all participating newspapers next week.