The Minnesota Daily won 12 awards this weekend in the 2005 regional Mark of Excellence Awards, presented by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Second-best all-around daily student newspaper, best editorial staff and second-best breaking news photography are among the awards Daily Co-Publisher and President Justin Scott is most excited about.

While it’s great to see awards given to individual journalists, the Daily is especially proud of the staff and all-around awards, Scott said. It shows the Daily’s reporting and writing is strong as a whole, he said.

The Society of Professional Journalists is a national professional organization that has worked since 1909 to improve and protect American journalism, according to its Web site. It presents the Mark of Excellence awards annually to recognize the best in print, radio, television and online college journalism.

“The Daily has usually done well in the (Mark of Excellence) awards each year, but this is an especially good showing for them this year,” wrote professor Kathleen Hansen, adviser for the Society of Professional Journalists Minnesota chapter, in an e-mail.

The first-place winners automatically will be entered in the national Mark of Excellence awards, Hansen said. Those winners will be announced this fall in Chicago.

The Associated Collegiate Press also presented the Daily with three awards at its Best of the Midwest convention in March. They include first place in editorial writing, second-place arts and entertainment section and second place in special sections for the Daily’s November voter’s guide.

The Daily’s business staff also won third place for best media kit at the College Newspapers Business and Advertising Managers conference. Because that is a national award, Scott said, winning third place is especially exciting.