It is a privilege to be asked to judge the over 4000 circulation, Best Newspaper in South Australia, but I would like to be considered still a student of our niche local community communication industry. 

Research reflects…. The local newspaper is the most reliable and trustworthy news service in Australia. 

Today we are surrounded by electronic comms that engage many but our charter is to continue to press home to our market & media buyers in capital cities the value of our papers & our developing ancillary services. 

The newspapers that have been submitted for consideration appear to be justly delivering & chronicling local news, events and the lives of their communities on a weekly basis very well, although the Border Watch & the S.E. Voice are produced twice a week. 

Judging the best newspaper, four areas are awarded points, editorial & photographic content, typography, advertising content & placement plus reproduction and printing.

Most newspapers submitted covered local news, council, sport, farming, motoring, school news, TV, social & entertainment. No other medium does it so well. 

A special mention goes to the Mt Barker Courier for their continued improvement & communication with their community at times of change. 

Also to the S.E. Voice for the inclusion of the local football record in run of press, as part of their paper. It may have been a good move to promote the paper at the local football grounds. 

This year again, the Murray Pioneer continues to feature a weekly double page spread of letters & text comment from its readers. No other paper in this section displayed their communities letters & thoughts so prominently. 

This year the Leader Newspaper scored first place. Editorial & picture scores were very close between nearly all papers, but the Leader pictures were consistently very bright and their advertising was well designed & well placed through the paper. 

The Leader like all entrants touched many community groups with their collation of community news reporting. Also the printing of their papers produced a consistent result issue to issue with no mechanical marking or uneven ink coverage. 

Second place went to the Border Watch. The Border Watch has a very strong clean & bold layout and appears to have more space for very good editorial & pictorial layout. The Watch is consistent with its bold, clean and organized style making it an easy read for their loyal readers. 

All papers considered this year covered all points to produce good, solid local papers for their communities, they are to be congratulated. 

The Yorke Peninsula Country Times took third place this year but what did stand out with the Times presentation was its consistent, uncluttered, colorful, bold & bright front page picture and layout. The Y.P.T front page would make the paper stand out on the news stand or distribution point, something all papers need to consider well each week. 

By demonstration the Y.P.T. do a first class job with their weekly front pages. 

Thank you to all publication representatives who took the time to enter the SA Newspaper Awards this year and again make the event such a success. 

Bob Yeates 

Bairnsdale 

Victoria