The Chattanooga Times Free Press received the top award in a journalism competition among newspapers and media organizations in 11 Southeastern states.
The newspaper was honored with the Green Eyeshade Award for "The Poverty Puzzle," a series published in 2016 that examined poverty and solutions to poverty in Chattanooga. That award is chosen as the best of all entries in the Society of Professional Journalists' Green Eyeshade competition, which includes newspapers, magazines, online publications and television and radio stations.
The judges said the eight-part series stood out "in a competition awash in journalistic might" and praised its research and reporting.
"'The Poverty Puzzle' engages, informs, inspires. It is a magnificent effort surely with lasting results, exemplifying the work the Green Eyeshade Award exists to honor," the judges' comments stated.
Overall, the Times Free Press won 13 awards in the Green Eyeshade competition, including nine first-place awards. The newspaper received the most first-place awards of any newspaper competing.
Those awards were announced in May. Award winners then compete for top honors in seven different divisions, and an overall Green Eyeshade Award winner also is chosen.
The newspaper also won top honors in two divisions of the awards competition:
- Print-and-graphics division, for work in Chatter and GetOut magazines
- Online division: For "The Poverty Puzzle."
Since 1950, the Green Eyeshade competition has honored the best journalism in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.