Montgomery noted for 50 years; Codner is sweepstakes winner for public notice coverage
scored two first-place awards, one second-, and two third-place awards. As well, the Pacer’s owner was recognized for 50 years as a journalist, and the Pacer’s publisher won an award for public notice coverage.
This all took place during the OPA Annual Convention, Saturday, June 6 at the Embassy Suites Hotel & Conference Center in Norman.
Competing in the category of weekly publications in communities with a population between 4,000 and 20,000, the Pacer won first place in Layout and Design, and in Editorial Writing. The Pacer won second place for Photography, and third place in both News Content and Digital Media.
The judge’s comments accompanied the plaques received by the Pacer. They wrote, “The layout was appealing to the eye while
AWARDS on page 3 the font choices seemed to really bring it together.” The Editorial Writing category judge wrote, the editorials “are a valuable service to the community. Each editorial clearly explains an important local issue and what’s at stake, then gives the reasons for the newspaper’s opinion. Well done.”
AWARDS: Earns the right to publish award winner badge on the newspaper
Newcastle Pacer and The Purcell Register owner John D. Montgomery was given a plaque noting his community journalism career of more than 50 years. Montgomery began his newspaper career in his hometown at the Hobart Daily Democrat-Chief. Over the years, he worked for numerous publications including the Kiowa County Star-Review, The Daily Oklahoman,
The Oklahoma City Times, Tulsa World, and The Madill Record.
A graduate of the University of Oklahoma’s journalism program, Montgomery has maintained strong ties to his alma mater. He and his wife, Gracie, established the Montgomery Family Endowed Scholarship Fund to support aspiring journalists.
He became the OPA’s youngest president in 199293. He has also been active with the National Newspaper Association and Oklahoma Newspaper Foundation.
He was inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame in 2005, and is a recipient of the OPA H. Milt Phillips Award.
Newcastle Pacer Publisher/ Editor Mark Codner was the recipient of the 2025 Sweepstakes for Public Notice Journalism. The award is given for reporting on legal notices in Oklahoma newspapers and refers readers to the original notice.
Codner encouraged readers through an editorial to read the notices about making the McClain County half-cent sales tax permanent, and then to “go vote.”
Since the Pacer was among award winners at the OPA convention, the newspaper received the right to publish the 2025 OPA Better Newspaper Contest Award Winner badge (as shown at the top left of the front page this week, and in the newspaper’s masthead on page 4).
