MEMPHIS—From across Tennessee, editors, reporters and designers gathered Saturday in Memphis to learn the winners in the annual Tennessee Press Association contest, which has been cosponsored by the University of Tennessee System for 85 years.
The ceremony was held during the Tri-State Press Convention in Memphis, where press associations from Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee gathered to learn best practices in local journalism. The annual press association contest celebrates and honors excellence in all areas, including reporting, writing, photography and more.
This year the Johnson City Press received the highest number of awards with 12 first-place wins while the Chattanooga Times Free Press followed with seven first-place awards.
During the ceremony, The Standard Banner (Jefferson City) was named a general excellence award winner for the fifth year in a row in its division. Other general excellence award winners were:
- Chattanooga Times Free Press
- Johnson City Press
- Cleveland Daily Banner
- Herald & Tribune (Jonesborough).
Newspapers receive points for each placement. General excellence honors go to the newspaper in each division with the highest number of points.
As part of the annual contest, newspapers winning first-place awards in the categories of editorials, best single editorial and public service receive $250 prizes from UT’s Edward J. Meeman Foundation. 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.
“The role news organizations across the state play in providing accurate and thorough information to their communities remains as important as ever,” said Melissa Tindell, UT System assistant vice president of communications who presented the awards. “These dedicated editors, reporters, photographers and designers—who have a commitment to transparency—keep us all well informed.”
Reciprocal judging is done with another state’s association. This year, the Arkansas Press Association judged 1,113 entries from 71 of the Tennessee Press Association’s 133 member newspapers and online publication members.
