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Best TV Newscast -- Night

Channel 4

Molly Hughes has proven to be a strong addition to Channel 4's late broadcast, and she'll get strong support when Jim Benemann's non-compete with Channel 9 expires and he's able to join her at the anchor desk sometime this fall. The real key to the ten o'clock newcast's success, though, isn't its on-air personnel or flashy graphics, but its newsiness. The station's investigative unit, spearheaded by Brian Maass (who's more adept at pissing off the authorities than any of his peers), is consistently strong -- and not just during sweeps season, either. This dedication to substance gives Channel 4's late-night entry a vitality and heft sadly lacking in its competition.

Best TV Newscast -- Morning

Channel 9

Chemistry is hard to define but easy to recognize -- and Channel 9's Gary Shapiro, Kyle Dyer, Kathy Sabine, Gregg Moss and Drew Soicher have it. They take the prize again this year for their ability to balance news updates of actual significance with lighthearted shenanigans that should be irritating during the a.m. hours, but aren't. For the most part.

Best TV Newscast -- Morning

Channel 9

Chemistry is hard to define but easy to recognize -- and Channel 9's Gary Shapiro, Kyle Dyer, Kathy Sabine, Gregg Moss and Drew Soicher have it. They take the prize again this year for their ability to balance news updates of actual significance with lighthearted shenanigans that should be irritating during the a.m. hours, but aren't. For the most part.

Best Addition to the Denver Post

Greg Moore

Greg Moore, a former managing editor with the Boston Globe who was cherry-picked by owner Dean Singleton for the position of Denver Post editor, has been on the job for less than a year, but he's already done what many observers thought would be impossible: He's got people talking about a paper previously regarded as stodgy and deadly dull. The Post isn't yet the great American newspaper that Moore and Singleton envision; there's still a long way to go. But Moore's energy and drive have helped make this goal seem like an actual possibility rather than the haziest of pipe dreams. The rest is up to him.

Best Addition to the Rocky Mountain News

The Stump

We'll admit it: At first the Rocky Mountain News's new design hurt our eyes, and we couldn't imagine how the paper would continue to fill its "channels" -- those left-hand columns earmarked for chatty tidbits, quotes and "by the numbers" trivia. But the News adjusted some type, we adjusted our expectations -- and the channels just kept getting better and better. The most successful of all: The Stump, with notes, odd news and observations from the campaign trail.

Best Correction in the Denver Post

Two days after the new leaders of the Colorado General Assembly were sworn in this session, a correction appeared in the Denver Post: "Because of a reporter's error, Diane Carman's column on the Denver and the West cover Thursday incorrectly stated that Colorado House Speaker Lola Spradley's mother was among the family members at the Capitol on Wednesday to witness her swearing in. Spradley's mother is deceased." Easy mistake, though: In her speech, Spradley had referred to her mother, who passed away three decades earlier, looking "down from above." Guess Carman thought she wound up in the cheap seats.

Best Correction in the Rocky Mountain News

In January, the Rocky Mountain News ran this correction on page two: "The cover photo of today's Spotlight section shows a snowshoer rather than a cross-country skier." Bet they know the difference now.

Best Dry Humor

Denver Water

The bad news about Colorado's drought was still trickling out last summer when Denver Water decided to alert the public -- gently -- to a potentially dire situation. The agency's $75,000 "It's a Drought. Do Something" campaign -- designed by Sukle Advertising and Design in Lakewood-- debuted in the heat of July, with people standing on street corners wearing old-fashioned sandwich boards and T-shirts, urging people to "Brush every other tooth," "Instead of a dishwasher, get a dog" and "Shower in groups." The campaign spilled over into bars, too, where special coasters told consumers to "Save Water. Drink Beer." The popular and populist approach was a hit, but Sukle took one, too; Even though the campaign won eight awards in Denver Advertising Federation show, Denver Water awarded its 2003 conservation contract to O'Brien Advertising.

Best Dry Humor

Denver Water

The bad news about Colorado's drought was still trickling out last summer when Denver Water decided to alert the public -- gently -- to a potentially dire situation. The agency's $75,000 "It's a Drought. Do Something" campaign -- designed by Sukle Advertising and Design in Lakewood-- debuted in the heat of July, with people standing on street corners wearing old-fashioned sandwich boards and T-shirts, urging people to "Brush every other tooth," "Instead of a dishwasher, get a dog" and "Shower in groups." The campaign spilled over into bars, too, where special coasters told consumers to "Save Water. Drink Beer." The popular and populist approach was a hit, but Sukle took one, too; Even though the campaign won eight awards in Denver Advertising Federation show, Denver Water awarded its 2003 conservation contract to O'Brien Advertising.

Best Environmentally Correct Drought Relief

Colorado Waste Tire Program

On the one hand, big nasty piles of illegally dumped tires, just waiting to spontaneously combust. On the other, thousands of pre-teen soccer players and their parents, banned from parched playing fields. Can one be used to remedy the other? Yes! And the state wants to help play matchmaker. The Poudre School District required artificial turf-maker Sprinturf to use rubber recycled from discarded tires as in-fill when a field at Rocky Mountain High School was resurfaced last summer; the Colorado Waste Tire Program covered about 10 percent of the cost, or $52,000, as thanks for removing thousands of used tires from the Colorado landscape, and the rest will pay for itself in seven years through reduced maintenance costs. The field never needs watering, and the high school has been flooded with requests to use it by other area teams whose parched fields have been placed off limts for spring practices.

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