InkBlots

Newspapers across the state spent the weekend telling readers of their fine showings in the annual MPA Better Newspaper Contest Editorial Division.

The Sun Herald won general excellence among large dailies.

Rachel Eide, managing editor of The Commercial Dispatch, won the J. Oliver Emmerich Editorial Excellence Award.

The NE Mississippi Daily Journal recaps its 19 awards.

The Hattiesburg American won 14 awards.

Among The Meridian Star’s awards were first place tropies for reporting and photography.

The Natchez Democrat took home a whopping 32 awards, including, not surprisingly, general excellence for its division.

And The Clarion-Ledger details the daily awards from the 140th annual convention. Marshall Ramsey tooks top honors for his usual good work as the C-L cartoonist.

UPDATE: The Brookhaven Daily Leader chimes in on its wins.

NOW AVAILABLE: A PDF download of all winners from the BNC is now available.

The sale of Knight Ridder newspapers to California-based McClatchy Co. is a more significant development for some affected papers than others. In Philadelphia, for instance, McClatchy will not hold on to the two KR properties, the Inquirer and tabloid Daily News, instead selling them to a group of investors fronted by enterpreneur, and frequent lightning rod, Brian Tierney. NPR took a look at the pending sale and the difference of opinion in the Philly newsrooms regarding Tierney.

Harlan Kirgan, a journalist with more than 30 years of newspaper experience, has been named the new executive editor of The Mississippi Press in Pascagoula. He was most recently the editor of The Eunice News in Eunice, La.

Staff writer David Owens has been promoted to the position of Associate Editor of The Clarksdale Press Register. Owens, 24, joined the staff in October 2004, after receiving his bachelor’s degree in journalism at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, Okla.

From the AP: Newspapers are seeing tremendous growth in online advertising, but as executives presented midyear updates to investors Tuesday, analysts still wonder whether it’s enough…

Donald Graham, CEO of The Washington Post Co., said he was pleased that online advertising was growing at about 35 percent a year, but he readily acknowledged that “we obviously cannot continue” to grow revenue at that pace indefinitely.

An interesting piece in The New York Times looks at the attempt at synergy heralded in the 2000 acquisition by Tribune of the Times Mirror Company and subsequent efforts to bring synergy to their combined print, broadcast and Web platforms. Says the NYT: While the entire media landscape is in turmoil, the Tribune properties in Los Angeles and New York have fared particularly poorly. Circulation is down, below the industry standards at both The Los Angeles Times and Newsday; at KTLA and WPIX, viewers have declined and audience share has plummeted.

Community papers are faring better than some of their big city brethren. Reuters has a fascinating report on the rise in circulation at some small and medium-sized papers. According to reporter Paul Tomasch: The Audit Bureau of Circulations’ latest data showed weekday circulation over a six-month period fell 4.7 percent at Colorado’s Denver Post, but rose 2.5 percent at the Grand Junction Sentinel; Florida’s Orlando Sentinel dropped 8.3 percent, but the St. Augustine Record rose 11.2 percent; California’s Los Angeles Times dropped 5.4 percent, but the Stockton Record rose 1.2 percent.

Intrepid reporter Logan Mosby, she of the Delta Democrat Times in Greenville and daughter of longtime Deer Creek Pilot editor and publisher Ray Mosby, learned a few things while covering a federal trial recently.

She writes in her DDT Column: I also found myself rather bemused, because some part of me has always wanted to be a lawyer. I’ve always wanted to be a dancer in the legal waltz. I suppose that my conceptions of courtroom dramas were based on just that - courtroom dramas. “Matlock.” “Perry Mason.” And yes, “Law & Order.”

From Editor and Publisher: In yet another sign of how newspapers are embracing technology to increase editorial transparancy, The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wa. today introduced a webcast feature that will allow readers to watch the paper’s twice-daily editorial meetings.

Homesick Mississippians gathered for their annual picnic and fish fry over the weekend in New York’s Central Park, as they do every year. But this event was a little more significant as picnic goers remembered Katrina and thanked Northeasterners who volunteered after the storm.

Governor Barbour was there. Remember…the new state diet health initiative doesn’t start until Thursday.