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BROOKLYN PARK — The Albert Lea Tribune took home 11 awards, including first place for Albert Lea Magazine and general reporting, Thursday night at the Minnesota Newspaper Association’s annual Better Newspapers Contest convention in Brooklyn Park.

The contest recognized work between September 2021 and August 2022. The awards were for multi-day newspapers under 5,000 circulation.

The Albert Lea Magazine issue that took the honors was from November/December 2021, featuring a men’s fashion feature on the cover.

Other first-place awards included first place for special section for a 9/11 anniversary section and first place for classified advertising.

“This was a great way to show that we were all affected even if we were not at the attacked sites,” the judge wrote of the 9/11 section, which came out 20 years after the attacks.

Regarding classified advertising, the judge wrote, “Top header is very clean and nice looking. Section heads are also easy to read. Overall layout is very sharp and all ads are lined up extremely well.”

Other awards included second place for news photo for Editor Sarah Stultz, taken at a fire on Seventh Street in Albert Lea in December 2021, and second place for local breaking news for Stultz’s coverage of the December 2021 tornado in Hartland.

“The reporter did a nice job of interviewing a variety of people and making sure to get a wide scope of reference on the disaster,” the judge wrote.

A second-place award was given for sports writer Tyler Julson’s story about five referees retiring after a combined 195 years of service.

The newspaper won third place for advertising excellence, sports reporting, website and general excellence.

The newspaper contest is held annually for both college and professional newspapers.