On Saturday, June 20, the Louisiana Press Association held its annual convention and awards banquet, and The Daily News walked away with 14 first-place plaques as well as the overall advertising award.

Graphic Designer Kim Gerald and the rest of the Advertising Departments took home top honors for In-Paper Promotion, Multiple Advertiser Page, Best Self-Promotion Outside of Print, Best Services Ad, Non-Retail, Best Success Story of an Ad, Best Non-Traditional Use of Space Ad, Best Special Section for last year’s Centennial magazine, Best Online Ad, both static and animated, and Best Online Advertising Campaign.

The Daily News also picked up second-place awards for Best Self-Promotion Outside of Print, Best Classified Section, Best Services Ad – Non-Retail, Best Success Story of an Ad and Best Special Section, and third-place awards for Staff-Generated Black and White Ad, Best Ad Campaign, Best Self-Promotion Outside of Print, Best Success Story of an Ad, Best Retailer Ad, Best Non-Traditional Use of Space Ad and Best Special Section.

Because of the number of advertising awards earned by The Daily News, the newspaper was awarded the Advertising Sweepstakes award for 2014.

On the editorial side, the staff of The Daily News took home four first-place plaques. The newspaper topped both the Best Front Page and Best Lifestyle Coverage awards while General Manager and Managing Editor David Vitrano was awarded first place for Best Single Editorial for a piece he wrote following Gov. Bobby Jindal’s turnabout regarding Common Core and Best Photo Package for coverage of the Dirty Outlaw Dash held at Cassidy Park last year.

The newspaper also picked up second-place awards for Best Photo Package, Best Editorial Page and Best Sports Coverage and third-place awards for Best Photo Package, Best Sports Photo and Best News Coverage.

“Working at a newspaper is an extremely fast-paced and often thankless job,” said General Manager/Managing Editor David Vitrano, “so to receive this sort of recognition from our peers is really meaningful. I’m proud of the entire staff and know they are deserving of the accolades.”