The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, The News & Advance of Lynchburg, the Northern Virginia Daily of Strasburg and Richmond Magazine have repeated as winners of the Virginia Press Association’s sweepstakes awards for their circulation groups. The awards were presented at the association’s annual meeting Saturday in Roanoke.

The Virginian-Pilot has won the sweepstakes award – signifying the winning of more prizes for writing, photography, artwork, presentation and multimedia than any other publication in the 50,000-and-over circulation group – 23 times in the 29 years that the prize has been given. The Pilot also has tied for the award once.

The Pilot scored 66 points in a field of eight newspapers. There were 240 possible points in the metro daily group.

The other sweepstakes winners:

Dailies with circulation between 20,000 and 50,000 – The News & Advance of Lynchburg, which earned 80 out of a possible 233 points in a field of eight newspapers. The News & Advance won its third consecutive sweepstakes award.

Dailies with circulation less than 20,000 – The Northern Virginia Daily of Strasburg, which earned 86 of a possible 226 points in a field of nine newspapers. The Daily has won the sweepstakes in its group in 17 of the last 20 years.

Specialty publications – Richmond Magazine with 57 out of a possible 211 points in a field of 19 publications. Richmond Magazine has won two consecutive sweepstakes awards.

Non-dailies with circulation greater than 14,000 – The Fauquier Times-Democrat of Warrenton with 53 out of a possible 219 points in a field of 25 newspapers.

Non-dailies with circulation between 7,000 and 14,000 – The Eastern Shore News of Accomac, with 32 points out of a possible 210 points in a field of 28 newspapers.

Non-dailies with circulation between 5,000 and 7,000 – The Orange County Review of Orange with 32 out of a possible 173 points in a field of 15 newspapers.

Non-dailies with circulation less than 5,000 – The Tidewater Review of West Point with 30 out of a possible 200 points in a field of 35 newspapers.

Each first place earns three points, each second place wins two points and each third place earns one point. To qualify for the sweepstakes, a publication must have won at least one point in each of the competition’s three major areas – writing, photography/artwork and presentation.

The VPA contest covered the 2007 calendar year. There were 147 publications participating in the contest; 114 received awards. The contest was judged by journalists from the New Jersey Press Association.