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Herald's ad staff wins five press awards

By Lynn Hotaling
We're #1!

The Sylva Herald's advertising staff won five awards in this year's N.C. Press Association Best Ad contest. Real estate ad specialist Cindy Turpin (left) won a first place with an ad she designed for Apple Realty, and ad salesman/designer Scott Denmon (center) captured a third place for an ad he created for In Your Ear. The advertising sales staff - Denmon, Advertising Manager Margo Gray (right), and Jan Extine (not pictured) - won three staff awards for special pages. Turpin accepted the awards June 8 during the NCPA Advertising Conference in Chapel Hill. - Herald photo by Rose Hooper

 The Sylva Herald's advertising staff captured a total of five awards recently in the N.C. Press Association's Best Ad contest. Awards were presented June 8 in Chapel Hill during the NCPA Advertising Conference.

Real estate ad specialist Cindy Turpin and ad salesman/designer Scott Denmon won individual awards, and the advertising department picked up three awards - two firsts and a second. Turpin attended the conference and accepted the newspaper's awards.

Turpin's first-place award was in the Best Spot Color Real Estate Ad category and went to an ad she designed for Apple Real Estate of Dillsboro.

"Clean, lots of information," said the category judge, a member of the Virginia Press Association, about Turpin's ad. The page was described as "very eye-catching" and made "great use of space," according to comments printed in the conference program.

Denmon took third place in the Best Use of Full Color category for an ad he created for Sylva's In Your Ear music store.

Denmon and the other members of the advertising department, Advertising Manager Margo Gray and Jan Extine, captured a first-place award for Best Spot Color Restaurant/Entertainment Ad for their color Easter dining page. They also took second place in the category with their Great Smoky Dining Guide, a popular summer feature that will return to the Herald in next week's edition.

"Nice, clean contrast of color and white space. Excellent, effective art element (Easter Bunny) to grab your attention in the header," wrote the judge.

The advertising staff's other first place, for Best Shared Page, was for an ad they designed for Sylva merchants for the 2000 downtown Greening Up the Mountains festival.

"The tree pulled this altogether and made the ad different. Very nice," commented the judge. Herald Publisher Jim Gray was pleased by the advertising department's strong showing in the statewide competition.

"These awards say a lot about the caliber of ad support this newspaper is able to offer its retail customers," he said.

"I think our local businesses really benefit from the expertise of our award-winning advertising staff," the publisher said. "I'm really proud of the good job they do every week and happy they've received this statewide recognition."

Back to Archive: 06/14/01.