By Megan Hatch
Brigham Young University’s student run newspaper, The Daily Universe, beat out 2,000 other newspapers for the top spot amongst college newspapers in the National Newspaper Association’s Better Newspaper Contest. It was awarded prizes in 24 categories.

“This award shows the quality of the Communications program here. It shows that we have cream of the crop students in our program,” said Kaye Nelson, editorial lab manager of The Daily Universe.

In their evaluation of the newspaper the NNA said, “Writing and reporting in The Daily Universe is superb. The leads, headlines, subheads and quotes weave stories together nicely to present readers with a great informational package.”

Newspaper articles were collected throughout 2009 in preparation for the contest, and three full editions of the paper were submitted to the NNA in order to be considered for the General Excellence award.

Being recognized as the best amongst such a competitive field is something staff writers are excited about. Reed Anfinson, one of the contest judges, regarded the quality of the work submitted to this contest as some of the best in the field. In a NNA press release Anfinson said, “Judging the contest is always difficult due to the high quality of so many of the entries. Each year I wait for my turn to judge the contest, knowing how much I will learn in the process.”

The Daily Universe also received first place for Best Local News Coverage, Best Single Ad Idea, Best Series Ad Idea, Best Newspaper Promotion, Best Small-page Ad and Best Advertising Idea.