L&T staff report

Liberal can yet again celebrate its own Leader & Times as an award-winning community publication.

The awards were officially announced in April, and the convention took place earlier this month. Publisher Earl Watt said he is pleased with how this year turned out for the awards.

“We ended up with a total of 23 awards, and I know we’ve had more in the past, but it seemed very well balanced this year,” Watt said. “There were a lot more papers receiving a lot of awards, although I felt like it was a little more actually competitive this year. The Sweepstakes Award came down to us and the Harvey County newspaper again – we won it two years ago and they won it last year, so it’s been close between us. They were able to get back years on sweepstakes, but the awards we received, I feel really good about. A lot of them were for the strong writing, and the writing is still the strength of the paper, and I think that’s important because in the end it’s about the reporting we’re doing, so I’m proud of that.”

L&T reporters Robert Pierce and Elly Grimm also expressed surprise at the awards results.

“I was surprised by this year’s contest results in both good and bad ways. One story I didn’t think had a chance actually won the agriculture story category, but it was the judges’s comments about ‘Local farmers explore organic options in effort to enhance products’ that really surprised me,” Pierce said. “According to the judges, I teach the reader about organic farming through the lens of local farmers attending a farm tour. They went on to say they appreciated this approach of showing versus telling the reader about organic farming. I was pleased with my work on the story, and I intended to educate readers, but I had no idea the story would make that kind of an impression on judges. I was honored to get first place in one of the KPA’s newest categories, military story, for my story ‘9/11: A DAY OF REMEMBRANCE,’ and I loved the judges’s comments on this story as well. Those of us who are old enough to have witnessed 9/11 can truly recall where we were as those events unfolded, but younger generations only find out about it through stories from those witnessed it. Thus their comment of me capturing the emotions and honor of the young students at Cottonwood Elementary was a bit of a shock. If you work long enough in this job, you always find something new, and you also find out things are not exactly the way you thought they were.”

“The biggest surprise for me was sweeping the top three spots in the Spot News photo category, that has never happened with me before,” Grimm said. “I was also really happy my photos from last year’s Throwdown Showdown ended up doing well, that event usually ends up a good spot photo opportunity. I wish I’d gotten some more recognition for more of my stories, but I know it was really, really competitive this year, so that just means I’ll need to up my game for next year.”

While the industry is facing some tough times, Watt said he feels overall positive about the past year’s work.

“It’s tough in the business right now, so I’m proud of our community continues to support us,” Watt said. “Our subscribers are very loyal and continue to support us, and we just keep looking for opportunities to continue to promote and advertise local businesses, that really is what allows us to tell the story, and that’s what provides the revenue. What I’m looking forward to is a continued relationship with our community and for us to have the backing of the community financially so we can be the best newspaper we can be. The more support we get from the community, the better we can provide the news, and that’s what I’m looking for here in the rest of 2026 and into 2027, continuing to provide the best quality product for the community.”

Watt then praised the work of the newspaper staff.

“I want to give Robert some props, because I think this is the best year he’s ever had – he got three first places, and I don’t think he’s ever had that,” Watt said. “I know Elly also got a first place this year, and she usually does well come contest time. Like I said earlier, I think the writing and the reporting have been something we can take pride in, and that’s why we do this contest every year, so their work can be looked at by independent judges. I think contest always provides that opportunity for us to say ‘I’m on the right track in this area, according to the judges and our readers,’ or ‘Maybe I can see if I can’t make some improvements in X area.’”

Overall, the staff agreed, the paper will continue to do good work.

“I hope the community realizes what we do is for them, and we want to say thank you to the community, because without their support, we couldn’t, we couldn’t cover them, we couldn’t do what we do,” Watt said. “There are a lot of other things we could be doing for a living, and I’m glad we get to do this and tell people the story of their community and share that information.”

“As always, I want to thank those of you in the communities we cover for one, reading our stories, and two, letting us tell your stories and giving us the time to hear them,” Pierce said. “The people of this region are some of the greatest you will ever meet in my opinion, and it is truly a privilege and honor to tell your stories.”

“I hope we can keep doing what we do here at the paper, and I would encourage anyone and everyone to read us,” Grimm added. “Anyone can read our stories on our Web site or on our Facebook page, and anyone interested in a subscription just needs to call the paper. It’s a joy being able to help tell so many different stories every day, and I can’t wait to keep doing just that.”