Wyoming Rural Electric News (WREN) magazine received multiple awards in this year’s Wyoming Press Association 2019 Associates Contest, including four first-place awards!
WREN Magazine is managed and produced by Linden’s print and publications arm, and it’s one of our favorite projects to work on. The Wyoming Rural Electric Association (WREA) approached us about revamping the look and feel of the magazine and taking on the management of its creation and distribution back in 2009.
“We’re grateful for our continued partnership with the WREA,” says Maggie York, Co-owner of Linden and WREN’s Editor in Chief. “WREN is one of those rare and special projects that allow our whole team to be involved.”
Everyone on the Linden team has become a WREN contributor in some way; whether we’re planning articles and layouts, securing advertising, writing, editing, designing, attending co-op meetings and traveling around Wyoming to gather content or packing up the final printed pieces to ship out, we all come together to create 11 issues every year.
The Wyoming Press Association (WPA) Associates Contest provides recognition of outstanding public information projects. Entries are judged by WPA members on creativity, content, style and conformity to journalistic standards. This year, WREN was awarded:
First Place, Publications
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- This category was judged on the overall quality of the magazine including writing, design and execution. The judges commented, “A strong read throughout in a very tough field. Nudged out the competition with great photos, solid copy and great attention to detail.”
First Place, Informational Campaign
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- Linden won a new category in the contest this year for the WREA’s Benefits of Rural Electric Cooperatives informational campaign. The campaign, which reached rural electric members and legislators across Wyoming, included a pamphlet (also designed by Linden) and a regular item in WREN magazine outlining the benefits that rural cooperatives bring to the local economy. The judges noted, “I’m always impressed by the hard work that goes into these publications. The information in these pieces are clear, well presented and clean. You’ve achieved each of the objectives, nice job!”
First and Second Place, Photo Story
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- WREN took first and second place in the photo story category, with the November 2018 feature “Photographing the Rodeo” winning first, and the August 2019 “Artisans at Work” coming in second.
First Place, Op-Ed by WREA’s Shawn Taylor
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- WREA Executive Director Shawn Taylor won first place for Op-Ed writing. Taylor’s columns are a regular item in WREN magazine, and he earned these comments from the judges: “Shawn does a great job picking topics for his columns. I appreciate that he uses his column as a way to appeal to and reach a rural audience.”
Second and Third Place, Column Writing
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- Regular WREN writers Walt Gasson and Dr. Bruce Connally took second and third place, respectively, in the column writing competition.
Third Place, Layout and Design
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- Linden Art Director and Lead Designer Dixie Lira won third place in page layout and design for her work on the April 2019 story, “Tornadoes.”
“Everyone works so hard on every issue, and that includes the WREA and our readers. It’s just wonderful to have this recognition,” Kelly Etzel Douglas says. Kelly is WREN’s Managing Editor and the Publications Manager here at Linden. “I’m so pleased to be a part of this publication.”
We all are. WREN is challenging, fun, creative work, and we get to do it together.
To see past issues of WREN magazine, visit wyomingrea.org/wren-magazine/wren-archive/. You can also see a full list of WPA Award Winners and the judges’ comments here.
Alison Quinn
Creativity, strategy and sparkles: our Creative Director's Big 3. Alison is a self-professed word nerd and lover of marketing that makes you go "whoa!"