Newspaper publishers, editors, writers, and designers won top awards today in the Tennessee Press Association’s 2020 newspaper contest cosponsored by UT, which has been a part of the annual event since 1940.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press, the Johnson City Press, the Leaf-Chronicle (Clarksville), the Knoxville Ledger, and the Hamilton County Herald (Chattanooga) won the top general excellence awards in their respective divisions at the association’s ceremony, held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Points were awarded for each entry, and general excellence honors were based on the newspaper’s total points in their division.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Bristol Herald Courier each won 10 first-place awards. The Tennessean (Nashville) received eight first-place awards and the Knoxville Ledger received seven first-place awards.
Among the many stories from 2019 cited for excellent work, contest judges highlighted several papers for their coverage of the Sumner County slayings in April 2019, which left seven people dead and one injured.
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 Tennessean won three awards this year, one for each category.
The Meeman Foundation was established in 1968 at UT to fund the contest, provide professional critiques of journalists’ work, and support journalism students and educators.
Reciprocal judging is done with another state’s association. This year, the Georgia Press Association judged 1,341 entries from 72 of the Tennessee Press Association’s 129 member newspapers.
Read the full results of the contest.
CONTACT:
Charles Primm (865-974-5180, charles.primm@tennessee.edu)
Robyn Gentile (865-584-5761, rgentile@tnpress.com)