General Excellence: Times wins top honors

Published 2:00 pm Monday, June 6, 2022

JEKYLL ISLAND — For the fifth consecutive year, The Valdosta Daily Times has received the highest journalism honor in the state, bringing home General Excellence in the 2022 Georgia Press Association Better Newspaper Contest.

The Daily Times received first-place honors in 10 categories and was recognized as the best in class for its local news coverage, sports coverage, editorial pages and community service.

The newspaper was given the Community Service Award for its defense of the public’s right to know and championing government transparency.

Editor Jim Zachary said, “We are honored and humbled to be awarded for open government advocacy but we hope the real winners are the people in our coverage area as we work to keep the light on local government and inform readers about the things they want and need to know.”

Zachary said the newspaper is equally proud to be recognized with a first-place award for Local News Coverage which honors the newspaper that does the best in providing overall coverage of its community. The judge in that category said, “These entries have plenty of local stories written by the newsroom staff, which was impressive. The layout of the paper was good.”

The Daily Times received first-place honors for its Editorial Pages and Zachary was given a first-place award for his weekly DomeLight column in the Serious Column category.

Sports Editor Shane Thomas received first-place awards for Sport Section, Sports Coverage and Sports Photo.

The judge in the Sports Section category wrote, “Super sports section in every respect. Insightful, interesting writing and awesome photos. Readers must be glad to have you as their hometown newspaper.”

Dean Poling, executive editor, received a first-place award for Lifestyles/Feature column writing.

Former state reporter Riley Bunch received first place for Spot News Photo.

The newspaper came in second place for its Lifestyles Coverage.

Second Place awards were given to Poling for Serious Column Writing, Feature Writing and Religion Writing.

Former reporter Bryce Ethridge got second for Best Magazine Original Writing and Photo Essay, while former reporter Amanda Usher received second place for Feature Photo.

Third-place honors went to Bunch for News Photo and Spots News Photos, Zachary for Serious Column, Ethridge for Feature Writing and Photo Essay, Poling for Humor Column, Thomas for Sports Feature Story and Sports Column.

Education Reporter Brittanye Blake received a third-place award for Education Writing.

Senior Reporter Terry Richards received third place for Business Writing.

The Georgia Press Association honored the winners of the 2022 Better Newspaper Contest on Friday, June 3, at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel during the group’s 135th annual convention.

During the award ceremony, the Augusta Press won the Freedom of Information Award which is awarded to the newspaper that did the most during 2021 to uphold the principles of the First Amendment and to protect the public’s right to know. Zoe Nicholson of the Savannah Morning News was honored as the winner of GPA’s Emerging Journalist Award. 

Entries were judged in seven divisions based on circulation. The daily divisions are Division A (circulation of 8,000 or more) and Division B (circulation of 7,999 or less). The weekly divisions are Division C (circulation of 6,000 to 15,000), Division D (circulation of 3,000 to 5,999), Division E (weeklies with circulation of less than 3,000) and Division F (all weekly newspapers with more than 15,000 in circulation and all associate media members of GPA).

The Valdosta Daily Times competes in Division B. In that division, The Valdosta Daily Times received first-place General Excellence while second place went to The Times-Georgia in Carrolton and third place to the LaGrange Daily News. Some of the other newspapers winning awards in Division B include the Athens Banner-Herald, Albany Herald, Milledgeville Union Recorder, Griffin Daily News, Press-Sentinel in Jessup, Macon Telegraph, Dublin Courier Herald, Cartersville Daily Tribune and Rome News-Tribune.

This year’s judging was done by members of the Louisiana Press Association.