The Andalusia Star-News won third place for general excellence among small daily newspapers in Alabama in the Alabama Press Association’s Better News-paper Contest, the association announced Friday afternoon.

Gen-eral excellence awards are based on total points earned from five areas: issues submitted for the general excellence category, awards in eight general categories, awards in the public service and freedom of information categories, awards in the single event categories and awards from the advertising contest.

First place in general excellence went to The Opelika-Auburn News, and second place went to The Ft. Payne Times-Journal.

The Star-News also won second place for best public service for its work in pushing the Covington County Commission to make proposed bingo rules governing electronic bingo public before adopting them. Eventually, the issue died for lack of support when commission chairman Lynn Sasser decided not to support the proposed measure.

“We are honored by the recognition from our peers,” Star-News publisher Michele Gerlach said. “But the greatest recognition comes from our subscribers and readers who read and judge us every day. Making them happy makes our work worthwhile.”

The Star-News also won:

Second place in the best lifestyle pages category;

First place in the local education coverage category;

Second place in the best local news coverage category;

In the categories recognizing individual work, The Star-News won:

Third place in best in-depth news coverage for its series “The Faces of Meth;”

First place in best feature story for “Bubba becomes (more) famous” by Stephanie Nelson;

Second place for best headline

Earlier this year, the APA announced the winners of its advertising contest.

The Star-News won first place in the Best Single Ad over ½ page for a Sav-A-Life of Covington County ad designed by Erin Johnson.

Sixty-four newspapers submitted 2,525 entries in the annual contest. South Carolina Press Association judged the entries. The awards will be presented at APA’s 139th summer convention.