The Times won eight first-place awards and 20 overall, more than any newspaper in Georgia of any size, in the annual Georgia Associated Press Association awards.
The Times competed in Class AAA against other midsized daily newspapers, including those from Athens, Rome and Marietta.
Among the paper’s top honors was Photo of the Year for a photograph by staff member Scott Rogers of a family whose dog was shot and killed in a raid by sheriff’s deputies. The photo placed first in the Feature Photo category.
Rogers also won for Best Photo Portfolio, with Times staffer Sara Guevara placing third.
In Spot News Photo, Guevara won first place for a photo of kids huddled in a fire station after the August tornados. She also placed first in Best Picture Story for “All Grown Up,” a story of a young woman’s coming of age ceremony, and for Photo Illustration for “Thermostat Wars.”
Rogers won seven awards overall, Guevara won five and Times chief photographer Tom Reed took a third-place award.
In the writing categories, Jessica Jordan finished first in Feature Writing for “Windows into World War II.” Stephen Gurr won first place in Beat Reporting for his coverage of the courts system.
The Times won a second-place staff award in deadline reporting for coverage of tornadoes threatening Hall County and second in Non-Deadline Reporting for the series, “Are Latinos Leaving?”
The sports department took second for its summer series, “Pictures of the Past” and Harris Blackwood took second in Business Writing for “Like Father, Like Son.”
The editorial board placed third in editorial writing.
“These awards are a significant accomplishment for our newspaper, and are a wonderful recognition from our peers of the type of journalism we create every day,” Executive Editor Mitch Clarke said. “We have an amazing team of journalists assembled here, and I am enormously proud of everyone for their hard work, dedication and commitment to our readers.”