Times-Recorder brings home 12 awards from Ga. Press Association

Published 10:52 am Thursday, June 14, 2018

JEKYLL ISLAND — The Americus Times-Recorder brought home 12 awards last weekend as the Georgia Press Association honored the winners of the 2018 Better Newspaper Contest and Advertising Contest on Friday at the Jekyll Island Club during the group’s 132nd annual convention.
Nichole Buchanan, business development manager of the Times-Recorder, brought home 10 awards, including the Ad Ideas of the Year award for the Family Foot and Ankle ad campaign; and six first-place awards for Service/Institutional — The Look Salon, Motor Vehicle — Finnicum Motor Company, Advertising Campaign — Family Foot and Ankle, Special Section — Readers Choice 2017, Home Furnishings and Appliances — Minick Interiors, and Miscellaneous — The Maze. She also earned three second-place awards in Miscellaneous — Downtown Open House, Signature Page — Color it Christmas, and Ad Campaign — Laura Bernstein for Mayor.
See Buchanan’s winning ads on page 9 in today’s edition.
On the editorial side, Beth Alston, publisher and editor of the Times-Recorder, brought home two writing awards. Her story on Anna Moates, published in Americus magazine, took second place in Division F, weekly newspaper, for magazine story. Alston also earned an award in the same division for community service. Her coverage of the dismantling of the city of Americus’ new alcohol beverage license ordinance by the city council took third place.

¬The Savannah Morning won the prestigious Freedom of Information Award for doing the most during 2017 to uphold the principles of the First Amendment and to protect the public’s right to know. The Morning News was honored specifically for its battle to get its local public hospital and public hospital authority to comply with Georgia’s Open Records Act. In a pending case, the Morning News sued Memorial University Medical Center for documents about the hospital’s proposed sale to one company, about its completed sale to another company, and for the legal bills paid by the hospital regarding the Open Records Act requests from the newspaper.
Judging for the award was done by the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. “Public institutions must know that if they keep secrets, the local newspaper will battle them, in court. And that they won’t back down,” said the judge for the award.
Judging for the award was done by the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. “Public institutions must know that if they keep secrets, the local newspaper will battle them, in court. And that they won’t back down,” said the judge for the award.
Two young journalists were honored as winners of GPA’s Emerging Journalist Awards. Journalists younger than 30 with less than five years of experience writing professionally for a newspaper — one from the state’s daily newspapers and one from the state’s weeklies — were honored for demonstrating excellence and maintaining high standards of quality and ethics. The daily newspaper winner was Shaddi Abusaid of the Marietta Daily Journal. The weekly newspaper winner was Halei Lamb of The Forest-Blade of Statesboro.

Winners in the Georgia Press Association Better Newspaper Contest were honored for their outstanding achievements in newspaper journalism. Entries were judged in seven divisions based on circulation. The daily divisions are Division A (circulation of 18,000 or more), Division B (8,000 to 17,999) and Division C (circulation less than 8,000). Weekly divisions are Division D (circulation of 6,000 to 15,000), Division E (weeklies with circulation of 3,000 to 5,999), Division F (circulation less than 3,000) and Division G (all weekly newspapers of more than 15,000 in circulation and all associate media members of GPA).