Newspaper writers, editors, designers, and publishers won top awards today in the Tennessee Press Association’s 2014 newspaper contest, cosponsored by the University of Tennessee.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press, The Jackson Sun, Elizabethton Star, the LaFollette Press, and The Erwin Record won the top general excellence awards at the association’s luncheon ceremonies held in Nashville. General excellence honors are based on total points accumulated for awards in five circulation categories.
This marks the fifth year in a row The Jackson Sun has won the general excellence award and the second year in a row that the Elizabethton Star has also won the general excellence award in its category.
Other awards highlights:
- The Chattanooga Times Free Press received fourteen first-place awards in the category of newspapers with a combined weekly circulation of 200,000 or more.
- The Elizabethton Star captured eleven first-place awards in the category of newspapers with a combined weekly circulation between 15,001 and 50,000.
- The LaFollette Press won six first-place awards in the category of newspapers with a combined weekly circulation between 5,001 and 15,000.
As part of the annual contest, UT’s Edward J. Meeman Foundation honors newspapers with $250 awards in the categories of editorials, best single editorial, and public service. The Chattanooga Times Free Press won all three Meeman Awards for newspapers in its circulation group. The Daily Herald (Columbia) also swept all three for newspapers with between 50,001 and 200,000 combined weekly circulation. The Independent Herald (Oneida) won the top award for editorials and best single editorial in the category of papers with weekly combined circulation of 5,000 or less.
The Meeman Foundation was established in 1968 at UT to fund the contests, provide professional critiques of journalists’ work, and support journalism students and faculty.
Among the other top winners were
- The Jackson Sun with five awards: makeup and appearance, local features, best business coverage, headline writing and best website.
- The Tennessean (Nashville) with five awards: Sunday editions, best graphics and/or illustrations, best personal column, best education reporting, and best special issue or section.
- Memphis Business Journal, also with five awards: makeup and appearance, best graphics and/or illustrations, investigative reporting, best business coverage, and best website.
The Arkansas Press Association judged a total of 1,577 entries from eighty of the association’s 122 member newspapers. UT has cosponsored the annual contest since 1940.
A complete list of winners is available online.
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C O N T A C T :
Charles Primm (865-974-5180, charles.primm@tennessee.edu)
Robyn Gentile (865-584-5761, rgentile@tnpress.com)