Newspaper writers, editors, designers and publishers won top awards in the Tennessee Press Association’s 2017 newspaper contest, cosponsored by UT.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press, the Johnson City Press, the Daily Herald (Columbia), the Lebanon Democrat, the Wilson Post (Lebanon), and the Gallatin News won the top general excellence awards at the association’s dinner ceremony, held Thursday in Franklin, Tennessee. General excellence honors are based on total points accumulated for awards in five circulation categories.
Award highlights:
- This marks the fourth year in a row that the Chattanooga Times Free Press has won the general excellence award in its category.
- The Chattanooga Times Free Press received 10 first-place awards in the category of newspapers with a combined weekly circulation of more than 200,000.
- The Wilson Post won eight 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, newspapers winning first-place awards in the categories of editorials, best single editorial, and public service received $250 prizes from UT’s Edward J. Meeman Foundation. The Daily Herald and the Leaf-Chronicle (Clarkesville) swept all three Meeman Awards for newspapers in their circulation groups.
The Meeman Foundation was established in 1968 at UT to fund the contests, provide professional critiques of journalists’ work, and support journalism students and educators.
The South Carolina Press Association judged a total of 1,317 entries from 72 of the association’s 120 member newspapers. UT has cosponsored the annual contest since 1940.
Full results of the contest are available online.
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CONTACT:
Charles Primm (865-974-5180, charles.primm@tennessee.edu)
Robyn Gentile (865-584-5761, rgentile@tnpress.com)