The Louisiana Press Association announced the winners of the 2025 Better Newspaper Competition on May 8, 2026 at the Baton Rouge City Club, including Newspaper of the Year honors, which included:
The designation for the Newspaper of the Year is based on the number of points earned in the contest, with awards being given in individual contests for first, second, and third places. The editorial contests range from news story writing to graphic design while the advertising entries were judged based on design, creativity, and effectiveness.
A full copy of the presentation can be found by clicking here.
The Oklahoma Press Association judged the 28 LPA member publications that entered the contest, along with college and university student newspapers. The total point breakdowns, per division, and winners can be found at the link below.
2025 Louisiana Contest Winners with Points.xlsx
“The 2025 contest had some very close races for ‘Newspaper of the Year’ and that’s exciting,” LPA Executive Director McHugh David said of the 830 entries. “Our members across the state take their work seriously, and it shows when we run our contest.”
LPA also remembered two stalwart members of the press community lost in 2025, including Carissa Hebert (January 11, 1966 – May 21, 2025) and ‘Dickie’ Broussard (February 15, 1936 – August 8, 2025).
The Press Association also added a sizeable number of new entries to the ’50- year Club’ including:
In the Freedom of Information Competition, The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate was the winner, diving deep into the resurrected process of legalized execution in Louisiana:
"Dear judges of the Louisiana Press Association awards,
After a 15-year hiatus, Louisiana’s public officials decided last year to fire up the state’s long-dormant death chamber.
But executions would be different than ever before in the state.
The Louisiana Legislature recently legalized a new execution method that had only been used before in Alabama: nitrogen hypoxia. Gov. Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murill announced the state was ready to resume executions after developing a new protocol for using it.
The protocol, however, was completely secret.
The state planned to test the new method on longtime death row inmate Jessie Hoffman, who was convicted in the 1996 rape and murder of Mary “Molly” Elliott in St. Tammany Parish.
The state denied our newspaper’s public records request for a copy. We wrote about the protocol being sealed in federal court, and Hoffman’s attorneys moved to unseal it. Our newspaper’s attorney, Scott Sternberg, asked for consent for The Times-Picayune | The Advocate to intervene in the case so we could file our own motion to unseal.
The state fought back, arguing the seal should remain “to avoid the 'promotion of public scandal' and ensure the State and its officials can carry out its duties safely and efficiently under the law.”
After Sternberg’s intervention, U.S. District Chief Judge Shelly Dick of Louisiana's Middle District ordered that a redacted version be made available for public view.
The document was a near carbon copy of Alabama’s nitrogen gas execution method, and called for the state to strap Hoffman to a gurney, place a mask over his face and pump nitrogen gas through tubing at Angola. Having the execution method not only allowed us to inform readers about the state’s methods, it also prepared us for future coverage.
Our reporter, John Simerman, was a media witness for the execution. The protocol helped him prepare, and he compared it to reality on the night of Hoffman’s death.
Much secrecy remains around executions here. Another new law on the books calls for “absolute confidentiality” of anyone involved with a death sentence.
We believe the public has a right to know what happens in the death chamber and will continue our coverage.
Thank you for considering our entry."
Andrea Gallo
Senior Investigations Editor, The Times-Picayune | The Advocate
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The Louisiana Press Association was formed in 1880 as a trade association uniting the state's daily and weekly newspapers. As its members have transformed so has the LPA, focused on educating, advocating and innovating in print and digital platforms.
