We announced this 2011 Best Daily Newspaper in Ohio under 100,000 circulation award we won awhile ago, but just picked it up Saturday at the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists awards ceremony at Windows on the River in downtown Cleveland. It's a plate of etched glass.
The Morning Journal also won first place for Best Website for newspapers under 100K circulation and took second place in Page One Design. 

That says a lot about the value of competition. This was a statewide contest, and the top two small newspapers in Ohio are both in Lorain County, where the competition is fierce.

The Ohio SPJ contest is a joint project of the SPJ chapters in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati.

This year's judging was done by journalists in the Chicago, Philadelphia, Florida, and Washington, D.C. areas as well as SPJ Regions that span the middle of the country.