Colorado Community Media won 95 awards, including 38 first-place honors, in the Colorado Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest. Winners of the annual contest were announced at a ceremony in downtown Denver on Feb. 23.

CCM papers claimed a pair of special honors among the tally. The Golden Transcript won the Sweepstakes award for editorial excellence in Class 4. The Douglas County News-Press did likewise on the advertising side in Class 1.

The awards ceremony came a year into the CCM venture, which brought together under one umbrella newspapers in Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert, Jefferson, El Paso and Teller counties. This year’s awards total was a major jump for the company’s papers, which combined for 28 honors last year.

“Last year, we embarked on a quest for excellence and our peers have recognized that by awarding us with a nearly four-fold increase in the total awards we won this year,” said Jerry Healey, president and publisher of CCM. “I am very proud of the entire organization for their commitment to quality and the effort involved for what it takes for us to deliver outstanding newspapers and websites for our communities.”

In all, the media company comprises 22 newspapers, including the Northglenn-Thornton Sentinel, and 19 websites. Many of the winning entries appeared in the Sentinel including the following entries.

Tammy Kranz won first place in the Best Investigative Story Package for “Money fuels fight over jail.” Judge’s comment: Well-researched. She won second place in the Best Business News Story category for a story headlined “Union protests T-mobile closure.” She also won third place in the Best Environmental Story category for a story headlined “County adopts sustainability plan.”

Ashley Reimers won second place in the Best Deadline Reporting category for “Toddler in protective custody after meth lab bust.” Judge’s comments: Nice, compact story.

Sports staffers won second place in the Best Editorial Special Section category for Fall Sports Preview. Judge’s comments: A lot of copy and it was well done. Every story got the lead right because they all started with the most important part - the people. Staffers included Jonathan Maness, John Rosa, Brian Miller, Scott Stocker, Nick Garner, Pam Wagner and Justin Sagarsee.

Miller won second place in the Best Sports Story category for a story headlines “Legacy sisters double trouble in postseason.” Judge’s comment: Hometown readers should cheer for the author of this story of sisters’ competitive spirit. Miller also won third place in the Best Sports Event Story category for the story “Interesting way to handle a controversial decision.”

Darin Moriki won second place in the Best Agriculture Story category for a story headlines “Drought means higher hay prices.” Moriki won also first place in the Best Health Enterprise Story for a story headlined “Help proposed for inmates.”

Karen Randell and staff won first place in the Best Informational Graphic category for a graphic in the “Unquenchable Thirst” water series. Judge’s comment: Who knew how a water treatment plant works? I didn’t - until today. Great, simple graphic tells the reader what they need to know about a popular topic.

Mikkel Kelly and Linda Detroy won third place in the best Best Headline Writing category for headlines that included “Ban on drink size hard to swallow.”

Justin Sagarsee won second place in the Best News Photograph category for a photo titled “Air show.” Judge’s comment: Nice capture of the jet with the crowd.