The Northern Colorado Business Report has been honored with five awards for excellence in journalism.

Art Director David Badders won third place in the Best of the West contest for his illustration for “Technology’s Din,” a story about the challenges of

keeping up with technology. The judges lauded the illustration as “fun to look at” and noted that as readers are drawn into the illustration, “we notice

his face, great expression. Those dazed eyes swimming in a blur of technology. We understand; we’ve been there.”

Badders’ entry, published in December 1995, competed against 77 others. The Best of the West contest encompasses journalists from 13 Western

states, including Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

A total of 2,000 entries were submitted for the 1995 contest.

Newspapers compete against one another in Best of the West regardless of circulation and frequency. Finishing ahead of Badders were illustrators for

the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The Business Report captured four awards at the Colorado Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists’ annual awards banquet May 10. The

awards came for work published in 1995; The Business Report began publishing last October.

The Business Report fell into the 17,000- to 50,000-circulation category, competing against such publications as the Loveland Reporter-Herald, the

Boulder Daily Camera and The Denver Business Journal.

Capturing first place for general business reporting was Jim Sample for his December story “Business taxes climb $1.7 bil.” Judges praised the

analysis of Colorado’s Amendment 1 and Gallagher Amendment, saying, “This story exposed what really happened to corporate taxes and public

finances as a result of an amendment. Difficult issue that was presented with lots of analysis.”

Badders captured second place for his editorial cartoons, while Eric Herbert took third place in the commentary/criticism in arts and entertainment

category for his “Stepping Out” columns.

Dana Coffield, Beverly McConnico and Chris Wolf took third place for general reporting, series, for their collection of stories on the region’s banking

industry titled “Window of Opportunity.”

Additionally, Jerry W. Lewis, editor of The Boulder County Business Report, a sister publication, captured second place for his personal column.

Lewis was also honored as Small Business Media Advocate of the Year for Colorado for 1996 by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The

Boulder County Business Report also won the Media Advocate honors in the SBA’s regional competition, competing against media from six states,

including Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

“Many of our story ideas evolve from the challenges we face daily as small-business owners,” Lewis said. “This award, I believe, recognizes the

efforts The [Boulder County] Business Report’s entire staff has made to report on the importance of small business in Boulder County and along the

Front Range.”