BANGOR – The Bangor Daily News won a first place award in New England for the quality of its printing. The annual honor was awarded last weekend at the Newspaper Operations Association conference held at the Mount Washington Hotel & Resort in Bretton Woods, N.H.

Twenty-one daily papers of all sizes from around New England, using flexography, offset or letter press printing processes, submitted entries to the contest, which was judged by suppliers of ink and industry equipment.

The NEWS uses flexography, which features a water-based ink that dries hard and doesn’t rub off onto readers’ hands as oil-based inks do, according to Charlie Villard, production operations supervisor for the NEWS. The ink also is environmentally safe and contains no harsh chemicals, he said.

The judges examined each paper on points of inking, evenness of the color across the page, registration of photos and other color images, positioning of the page image on the newsprint, cleanliness of the production, smudging and other qualities specific to the production and printing process, Villard said. Design, story and photo content were not factors.

The production association chose the publication dates of Sept. 5-13 randomly, and the contest was based on the quality of a routinely printed paper. The NEWS submitted the front page of the Sept. 9 issue.

“We’re happy to win this kind of award for the issue of September 9, but we work hard to put out an excellent quality newspaper every day,” said Robert Stairs, NEWS vice president of administration, Friday.

The Boston Globe, which uses an offset press, placed second and the Manchester Union Leader in New Hampshire, which uses flexography, placed third.

Other papers participating in the contest included the Portland Press Herald and Lewiston Sun Journal in Maine; Lawrence Eagle Tribune, Cape Cod Times and Boston Herald in Massachusetts; the Meriden Record Journal in Connecticut; and the Newport Daily News in Rhode Island.