On the strength of six first-place awards, the Southern Standard received the General Excellence Award for the newspaper exhibiting the highest overall quality at the Tennessee Press Association banquet Friday in Nashville.
The Standard placed in nearly every category and won first-place honors for editorials, news reporting, spot news coverage, humor column, feature story, and promotion of newspapers.
The newspaper earned second place for make-up and appearance, education reporting, news photograph, and public service.
“It’s impressive to see the Standard compete against the best newspapers in the state and excel in such a way,” said publisher Patricia Zechman. “We are extremely happy with six first-place awards. We have a great staff of newsroom employees, including four who have worked here over 15 years, and that experience really shows with our finished product.”
Duane Sherrill won first place in news reporting for a series of stories he wrote on the 124 dogs seized from Wilma Jones in the Centertown community. The category allows up to 10 stories on any one topic.
James Clark won first place in spot news for a story he wrote on a fire at Lakeview Apartments where children had to leap for their lives from a second-story window. The category only allows one story to be submitted.
Clark also won first place in humor column for “At the tone, use your sick voice.” The column pertained to measures often taken when newspaper employees call in sick.
Clark won first in the group editorial category which allows any three editorials to be submitted from the calendar year. First place in editorial writing comes with a cash prize.
Charlie Johnson, who is no longer with the paper, won first place in the feature story category. The story was on the Roundhouse Street Gang, a group of boys who grew up in McMinnville over 50 years ago.
The newspaper earned first in promotion of newspapers for its Back to the ’60s Bash at the fairgrounds.
It’s the 10th time in 13 years the Standard has been honored as best paper in its circulation category.