Advocate receives nine awards in annual state contest
News | Published on February 3, 2026 at 2:30pm EST | Author: henningmaster
0By Chad Koenen
Publisher
The Citizen’s Advocate was honored as one of the top newspapers in the state as part of the annual Minnesota Newspaper Association Better Newspaper Contest.
The Citizen’s Advocate was recognized during the 159th annual Minnesota Newspaper Convention, which was held at the Marriot Hotel in Brooklyn Center last week. More than 4,100 entries were received for the annual Better Newspaper Contest.
The Citizen’s Advocate received nine awards, including a pair of first place finishes, for work completed from September 1, 2024 through August 31, 2025. The Citizen’s Advocate competes in the category of weekly newspapers with a circulation under 1,000.
Graphic artist Rachel Poser received first place in the category of best advertisement for an ad she created for First National Bank’s tailgate party.
Publisher Chad Koenen took first and second place in the category of news photography. The first place entry was a picture he took of kindergarten students throwing snowballs during the school Christmas program, while he took second place for a picture he took of the Veterans Days program.
Koenen also took second place in the category of best columnist and third place in the categories of hard news for a story he wrote about the Henning School Board’s intentions to stay as Heninng Hornets for athletics, as well as in the category of human interest story – news feature, for a story he wrote on the one year anniversary of the disappearance of Robert Shaw.
The Citizen’s Advocate also received second place in three categories including Editorial Page as a Whole, Sports Reporting and Use of Photography as a Whole.
The Frazee-Vergas Forum and NY Mills Dispatch were also recognized in the state contest with Forum editor Robert Williams receiving first place in the category of Human Interest Story – Personality Feature/Profile.
The NY Mills Dispatch received four awards in the category of newspapers with a circulation under 1,000 with Poser receiving third place in the category of best advertisement, as well as Koenen who took first place in the category of sports feature story. The Dispatch also placed second in the category of General Reporting and Use of Photography as a Whole.