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The Austin Daily Herald won three awards in the Minnesota Newspaper Associations Better Newspaper Contest, held virtually Thursday night.

The Herald’s sports section won second place for Best Sports Reporting for Dailies Under 10,000.

The Herald was also awarded third place for its 2020 Progress edition in the Special Section category, all dailies.

“Great way to showcase the community,” judges said.

The Herald’s ad staff won third place in Advertising Excellence for dailies under 10,000 with judges commenting: “Nice overall look and layout to the paper. Very nice Christmas Happy Holidays from A-to-Z page. This page was visually well executed. Good use of the page A1 and bottom strip ads (or couple of ads).”

Editor Eric Johnson said that it was a great cap to a particularly difficult year in 2020.

“I’m proud of our staff,” Johnson said. “In a year that forced several changes on us, including going down to two days a week, we can look back on the recognition of the hard work of our advertising and newsroom staff and feel good.”