Observer Group wins 17 awards

The Observer Group Inc. snagged 17 awards at the Florida Press Association’s Better Weekly Newspaper Awards July 9-11 at The Breakers Resort in Palm Beach.

The awards were part of the association’s Annual Convention. The Observer Group’s four newspapers — The East County Observer, The Longboat Observer, The Sarasota Observer and the Gulf Coast Business Review — were among the 92 Florida weekly newspapers that participated in this year’s competition. The Longboat, East County and Sarasota Observers competed in the over-15,000 circulation category, while the Gulf Coast Business Review competed in the under-7,000 circulation category.

The East County Observer won six awards, including first place in the Feature Story category for Executive Editor Michael Eng’s “Covert’s Operation,” which published Feb. 7, 2008.

“… Captured my interest from beginning to end,” a judge wrote about the story.

The East County Observer also won third place in the Feature Photo, Photo Series in One Issue, Sports Feature Story and Sports Game Day Story categories and an honorable mention for its “Little Paper That Could” 10th anniversary special section.

The Longboat Observer earned three first-place awards in the Front Page Makeup, Editorial Page and Sports Feature Story categories; a second place in Outdoor Writing; two third-place awards for Spot News Picture and Overall Graphic Design; and two honorable mentions in the General Excellence and Business Writing.

The Sarasota Observer won second place for Business Writing; and the Gulf Coast Business Review won first place for Photo Series in One Issue and third place for Business Writing.