Colorado Community Media won 95 awards, including 38 first-place honors, in the Colorado Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest. Winners of the annual contest were announced at a ceremony in downtown Denver on Feb. 23.

CCM papers claimed a pair of special honors among the tally. The Golden Transcript won the Sweepstakes award for editorial excellence in Class 4. The Douglas County News-Press did likewise on the advertising side in Class 1.

The awards ceremony came a year into the CCM venture, which brought together under one umbrella newspapers in Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert, Jefferson, El Paso and Teller counties. This year’s awards total was a major jump for the company’s papers, which combined for 28 honors last year.

“Last year, we embarked on a quest for excellence and our peers have recognized that by awarding us with a nearly four-fold increase in the total awards we won this year,” said Jerry Healey, president and publisher of CCM. “I am very proud of the entire organization for their commitment to quality and the effort involved for what it takes for us to deliver outstanding newspapers and websites for our communities.”

In all, the media company comprises 22 newspapers, including the Golden Transcript, and 19 websites.

The Transcript tallied eight first-place awards, five, second; and four, third.

Glenn Wallace, Linda Detroy and Darin Moriki won second place in the Best Sustained Coverage category for Pro Challenge bike race coverage. Judge’s comment: Interesting look at bike race from many different aspects - art to nutrition.

Lindsay Lovato won first place in the Best News Page Design category for “Golden in a bottle.” Judge’s comments: Good dominance, nice fonts. The flag is really unusual; clean and modern. The touches of color are subtle, but they bring the page together.

Darin Moriki won first place in the Best Agriculture Story for a story headlined “Drought hikes up hay prices.”

Darin Moriki won second place in the Best Health Enterprise Story for a story headlined “Pertussis outbreak spurs action, concern.”

Darin Moriki won third place in the Best News Story category for a story headlines “On track for national distinction.” Judge’s comments: Great information, good topic. I learned a lot reading this one. Clarke Reader won third place in the Best Feature Story category for “Quilts By Men.”

Andy Rickard won first place in the Best Classified Pages or Section category.

Linda Detroy won first place in the Best Feature Story category for a story headlined “Ashes to ashes to glass.”

Linda Detroy and Scott Gilbert won first place in the Best Headline Writing for several headlines including “From current to currency.” Judge’s comments: Three terrific headlines made me want to read these stories!

Linda Detroy won first place in the Best Business Feature Story category headlined “Putting his career on ice.”

Sarah Jones won first place in the Best Series category headlined “Homelessness.”

Sarah Jones won first place in the Best Education Story category for a story headlined “Possible music cutbacks spur worries.”

Karen Randall won second place in the Best Informational Graphic category titled Water supply index. Judge’s comment: A timely topic and graphic.

Justin Sagarsee won second place in the Best Feature Photograph category for a photo titled “Cardboard Cruise. Judge’s comment: The readers can feel the water seeping into the box!

Richard Gardner won third place Best Series for a five part series on the history of Jefferson County.

Mikkel Kelly won third place in the Best Editorial Writing category for several editorials one headlined “Give pause to voter ID question.” Judge’s comments: The one on photo IDs for voting was outstanding. The writer balanced the need to eliminate fraud with the need to count each legitimate vote, pointing out that studies show ID laws reduce “eligible” voter participation by 11 percent, an unacceptable barrier.