The Chattanooga Times Free Press received 28 awards, including the top honor in its category, in the 2016 Tennessee Press Association journalism awards.
The newspaper on Thursday received the General Excellence award in the large newspaper category at TPA's annual meeting in Franklin, Tenn. The award is given to the newspaper with the highest number of points, based on awards won.
This is the third year in a row the Times Free Press has won the General Excellence sweepstakes award.
The Times Free Press received the following awards:
- First-place awards for Sunday editions, investigative reporting, headline writing, best personal column, best humor column, best sports coverage, best graphics and illustrations, best special section, community lifestyles and best website.
- Second-place awards for business coverage, best personal column, best humor columns, breaking news, feature photograph, sports photograph, best news photograph, best single feature and editorials.
- Third-place awards for education reporting, best single feature and local features.
The newspaper also received some fourth- and fifth-place awards.
The TPA awards follow other regional and national awards earned by the paper this year. The Times Free Press received 12 awards in the 2016 Tennessee Associated Press Managing Editors journalism contest, including the Outstanding News Operation award. The newspaper also was recognized as one of the best Southeast news organizations in the Society of Professional Journalists' Green Eyeshade awards, a competition among news organizations across 11 Southeastern states. The Times Free Press won 19 awards in that competition.
The paper also won a first-place Associated Press Media Editors' Innovation in News Reporting award for coverage of the July 16, 2015, shootings in Chattanooga. Columnist David Cook received the Mike Royko Award for Commentary/Column Writing, presented by the American Society of News Editors. And photographer Doug Strickland received a general excellence award from the Society for News Design's World's Best Designed competition for a photo of the end of the 2015 Ironman.