The Oklahoma Press Association presented its Better Newspaper Contest Awards during the OPA Annual Convention, June 7-8, at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City.
Also announced during the two-day convention were the recipients of the OPA H. Milt Phillips Award and the Oklahoma Newspaper Found a t i o n ’ s Beachy Musselman Award.
During the annual awards, the Newcastle Pacer took home two first place awards, three second place awards, and three third place awards. As well, the Pacer was recognized with a Perfecta award for advertising insertion excellence.
The Pacer won its awards in the following categories: First Place - Advertising and Digital Media; Second Place - Sales Promotion, Photography and Community Leadership; and Third Place - News Content, Editorial Writing, and Layout & Design.
Receiving the H. Milt Phillips Award was James O. Goodwin, publisher of The Oklahoma Eagle in Tulsa. The OPA Board of Directors selects the recipient of the Milt Phillips Award.
James Goodwin is a lifelong Tulsan, an accomplished attorney and the owner of Tulsa’s only black-owned newspaper, The Oklahoma Eagle, which the Goodwin family has owned since 1936.
He is an advocate for the city’s reconstruction of the Greenwood district, for its history both before and after the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
As an attorney, Goodwin specialized in civil rights and social justice. He successfully challenged before the U.S. Supreme Court and Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals the constitutionality of a state statute and city ordinance regarding freedom of speech and was co-counsel in the matter of reparation for victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot.
He was named president and legal counsel of the Eagle in the early 1970s and has been publisher and editor since 1979. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame in 2015.
Receiving the ONF Beachy Musselman Award was Bruce Willingham, publisher and editor at the McCurtain Gazette.
Willingham has held his city and county officials accountable in McCurtain County for more than 40 decades. He joined the McCurtain Daily Gazette as executive editor in 1985. He and his wife Gwen bought the Gazette and Broken Bow News in 1988.
Willingham has covered about 100 murder trials in Mc-Curtain County since 1980 and led multiple investigations that led to changes in the community.
In 2023, Willingham suspected McCurtain County commissioners of conducting business after meetings adjourned. The shocking conversation he recorded and published made national news as it revealed racist remarks and threats made against him and his son, longtime Gazette reporter Chris Willingham. The threats came after the Gazette’s coverage of multiple problems in the sheriff’s department.
The recipient of the Musselman Award is selected annually by the Oklahoma Newspaper Foundation Board of Trustees.
Newcastle Pacer Editor and Publisher Mark Codner is a past Beachy Musselman Award winner.
