Gazette named best in class

Published 2:00 pm Sunday, June 11, 2023

JEKYLL ISLAND — The Tifton Gazette is the best newspaper in its class.

Winning 17 awards, The Gazette brought home First Place in General Excellence from the Georgia Press Association’s 2023 Better Newspaper Contest held Friday, June 9, at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel.

Amassing the highest award point totals in its division, The Gazette finished in the top spot, followed by The Journal, Buena Vista, in Second Place and The Jefferson Reporter/News & Farmer in Louisville in Third Place.

The Gazette garnered top honors for local news coverage, editorial writing, sports photography, column writing, page one design and layout and design.

The Georgia Press Association Local News Coverage Award recognizes the newspaper that provides the best overall news coverage of its readership area.

Dean Poling, Gazette editor, received First Place for Editorial Writing, and Poling and page designer Mary Beth Yeary received Second Place for editorial pages.

Yeary brought home First Place for Page One Design. The Gazette won First Place honors for Layout and Design.

Poling brought home First Place honors for Lifestyle/Feature Column and earned Third Place in both Serious Column Writing and Humorous Column Writing.

Becky Taylor was feted for First Place in Best Sports Photo category and Second Place for Sports Feature Photograph, while getting Second Place, with Yeary, for Sports Section or Pages, Second Place for Sports Coverage.

Sister newspapers, CNHI’s The Valdosta Daily Times and Moultrie Observer, also received First Place in General Excellence in their respective divisions. In addition to Poling being editor of The Gazette, he’s executive editor of The Valdosta Daily Times. Yeary designs page layouts for The Gazette, The Daily Times and The Observer.

The Georgia Press Association said in a press release following the award ceremony that the winners in the Georgia Press Association Better Newspaper Contest were honored for their outstanding achievements in newspaper journalism. Entries were judged in six divisions based on circulation or in daily/weekly divisions.

The daily divisions are Division A (circulation of 8,000 or more) and Division B (circulation less than 8,000). Weekly divisions are Division C (circulation 3,800-15,000), Division D (circulation 2,000-3,799), Division E (circulation less than 2,000) and Division F (all weekly newspapers of 15,000 or more and all associate media members).

There were 490 awards presented in 46 categories to 61 newspapers.

The top winners, by

division, were:

General Excellence: Division A: 1st Place, The Brunswick News

General Excellence: Division A: 2nd Place, Savannah Morning News

General Excellence: Division A: 3rd Place, Marietta Daily Journal

General Excellence: Division B: 1st Place, The Valdosta Daily Times

General Excellence: Division B: 2nd Place, Athens Banner-Herald

General Excellence: Division B: 3rd Place, LaGrange Daily News

General Excellence: Division C: 1st Place, The Walton Tribune, Monroe

General Excellence: Division C: 2nd Place, Monroe County Reporter, Forsyth

General Excellence: Division C: 3rd Place, The Dahlonega Nugget

General Excellence: Division D: 1st Place, The Moultrie Observer

General Excellence: Division D: 2nd Place, Morgan County Citizen, Madison

General Excellence: Division D: 3rd Place, The Covington News

General Excellence: Division E: 1st Place, The Tifton Gazette

General Excellence: Division E: 2nd Place, The Journal, Buena Vista

General Excellence: Division E: 3rd Place, Jefferson Reporter/News & Farmer, Louisville

General Excellence: Division F: 1st Place, Smoke Signals, Big Canoe

General Excellence: Division F: 2nd Place, Appen Media Group Inc.

Poling said to earn First Place General Excellence is a reflection on the commitment of the entire Tifton Gazette staff on a daily basis, whether in the print editions or online.

“This award is due to the hard work and dedication of each person on The Tifton Gazette team,” he said.

Publisher Laurie Gay said, “I am so proud of our team and the commitment they show to our community each day. Our goal is always to be the leading source of information for our community and to provide news you can trust, along with advertising products that will help our business community grow.”