The Republic-Times, a weekly publication covering Monroe County and surrounding areas since 1890, was awarded a top state honor on Friday.

The Illinois Press Association hosted its annual conference last week in Springfield, which included banquets Thursday for advertising awards and Friday for editorial awards. 

On Friday, the Republic-Times won the top prize in its division of large non-dailies for editorial general excellence in all of Illinois.

Per the criteria, general excellence is defined as overall presentation of the newspaper, with judging “based on scope of coverage in news and other sections, excellence in writing and photography, promotion of community interests, vigor in the editorial page, advertising enterprise and design.”

The newspaper also received the IPA’s general excellence award in 2018.

These awards are in addition to Southern Illinois Editorial Association general excellence honors won by the Republic-Times in 2012, 2016 and 2021. 

Republic-Times editor Corey Saathoff, who was on hand Friday in Springfield to receive the general excellence award along with former reporter Madison Lammert, also won first place for best sports photo at the awards ceremony.

Lammert won the top prize for localized national story for her piece on supply chain issues threatening Thanksgiving feasts.

Other first place state awards for the Republic-Times were by John Spytek for best spot news photo and Bill Ott for best columnist. 

Also in editorial, the Republic-Times received second place in non-dailies for COVID news coverage and third place in non-dailies for best website (republictimes.net), as well as second place in its division for informational graphic and third place in its division for both spot news photo and sports photo.

On the advertising side, Republic-Times production manager Tammy Taylor and the ad sales staff received first place awards in its division for best service/institutional ad, best miscellaneous ad and best small ad, in addition to a second place award for political ad, a third place award for health care ad and fourth place awards for best newspaper promotion and best holiday ad.

Saathoff and Lammert also represented the Republic-Times at the IPA conference in Springfield by presenting a power session on the newspaper’s four-part series on media literacy earlier this year.