awards - Tennessee Press Association

Transcription

The Tennessee Press
20 - Awards
AUGUST 2007
S
2007 University of Tennessee-Tennessee Press Association
P
A
d
August 2007
Special section
GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARDS
FIRST PLACE WINNERS - UT-TPA STATE PRESS CONTESTS
ELENORA E. EDWARDS | TPS
MEEMAN WINNERS UT-TPA STATE PRESS CONTESTS
CMYK
CMYK
Staff members of newspapers winning first place awards (from left): Front row, Frank Smith
and Skyler Swisher,The Daily Herald, Columbia; Debbie Cash, Herald &Tribune, Jonesborough;
Lesley Hughes, Anthony D. Piercy and Brenda Sparks, The Erwin Record; Kim Cook, Ronnie
Housley and Darren Reese, The Standard Banner, Jefferson City; Katrina Cornwell, The News
Examiner, Gallatin; Richard Esposito, The Oak Ridger, Oak Ridge; and Ron Bridgeman, The
Courier News, Clinton. Middle row, John Henson, The Daily Herald, Columbia; Victor Parkins,
The Milan Mirror-Exchange; Laurie Everett, Mt. Juliet News; Jamia Blazer, The Mountain
Press, Sevierville; Andrea Hopkins, Bristol Herald Courier; Scott Sines, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis; Echo Gaines Denmark, The Leader, Covington; James Webb, Chester County
Independent, Henderson; Randy Mackin, Buffalo River Review, Linden; John Henson, The Daily
Herald, Columbia; Jan Witherspoon, The Portland Leader; Mike Moser, Crossville Chronicle;
and Patricia Zechman, Southern Standard, McMinnville. Back row, Danny Wade, The Humboldt
Chronicle; Shirley Nanney and Ron Park, Carroll County News-Leader, Huntingdon; Richard
Stevens, The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville; Sonya Thompson, The Portland Leader.
Staff members of newspapers winning Edward J.
Meeman Awards for editorials or public service,
from left, front row, Andrea Hopkins, Bristol Herald Courier; Randy Mackin, Buffalo River Review,
Linden; Ron Bridgeman, The Courier News, Clinton; back row, Skyler Swisher, The Daily Herald,
Columbia, and Jamia Blazer, The Mountain Press,
Sevierville.
Newspaper
judges
needed
Aug. 24
in Nashville
FIRST PLACE WINNERS - TAPME CONTEST
Winners of AP writing and photography awards are (from left): Front row, David Melson,Shelbyville Times-Gazette; Jeff Farrell, The Mountain Press,
Sevierville; Larry Aldridge, The Daily Times, Maryville; Chris Menees, Union City Daily Messenger; Brad Schrade, The Tennessean, Nashville; Aaron
Thompson, The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro. Back row, Scott Sines, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, accepting on behalf of Cindy Wolff,
Marlon Morgan, Alan Spearman and Mark Weber; Tyrone Tony Reed, Wendy Isom, Ned Hunter and Lindsay McDonald of The Jackson Sun.
TPA members are needed to judge the Hoosier
State (Indiana) Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest on Friday,
Aug. 24, at the Willis
Conference Center in
Nashville.
We need 45 judges.
They will be able to see
what other newspapers
are doing and take home
some great ideas!
If you can participate,
please contact Robyn
Gentile, member services manager, at (865)
584-5761, ext. 105, or
[email protected].
Representatives of the winners of the 2007 General Excellence Awards (formerly called Sweepstakes Awards) in the UT-TPA State Press
Contests are, from left, Brenda Sparks, The Erwin Record; Kim Cook, The Standard Banner, Jefferson City; Chris Fletcher, The Daily Herald, Columbia; and Scott Sines, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis.
INSIDE
THE ERWIN RECORD
General Excellence Award
Group I
THE STANDARD BANNER, JEFFERSON CITY
Group II
THE DAILY HERALD, COLUMBIA
Group III
THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL, MEMPHIS
Group IV
AWARDS LUNCHEON
UT-TPAAWARDS LIST
2
3-16
NEWS PHOTOS
EDITORIALS
3-5
3-6
FEATURE PHOTOS
6-8
PERSONAL COLUMNS 7-9,12
SPORTS PHOTOS 9, 13-15
HUMOR COLUMNS 13-16
BEST ADS
TAPME AWARDS
17-18
19
AUGUST 2007
CMYK
UT, TPA announce State Press Contests winners
Newspapers across Tennessee that
won top awards in the University of
Tennessee-Tennessee Press Association
2007 State Press Contests were recognized July 20 in Nashville.
The Erwin Record, The Standard Banner, Jefferson City, The Daily Herald,
Columbia, and The Commercial Appeal,
Memphis, won the General Excellence
top awards at the association’s annual
luncheon at the Sheraton Music City hotel. Chris Fletcher, Contests Committee
chairman, presided at the luncheon.
Hank Dye, vice president of public
and govermental relations for the UT
system, presented awards, and Charles
Primm of the same UT office announced
the winners. Amy Blakely handled a
PowerPoint presentation. Karen Collins
and Amy Rummel assisted Dye.
TPA President Pauline D. Sherrer, Crossville Chronicle, presented
Fletcher an engraved clock.
Henry A. Stokes, 2006-07 TPA president, announced the recipient of the
2007 President’s Award, Michae Williams, The Paris Post-Intelligencer,
chairman of the Freedom of Information Committee, and Elenora E.
Edwards, Clinton, managing editor of
The Tennesse Press. Williams was not
present. Edwards accepted the award.
General Excellence honors are based
on total points accumulated for all
award categories.
The Erwin record garnered 38; The
Standard Banner, 45; The Daily Herald,
49; and The Commercial Appeal, 81.
This was the fifth year in a row that
The Erwin Record won the General
Excellence Award. It was the first win
for The Standard Banner and The Daily
Herald and the second time for The
Commercial Appeal.
The Hoosier State (Indiana) Press
Association judged a total of 1,374
contest entries from 77 association
newspapers.
Awards were given in four circulation
categories, large and small non-dailies
and large and small dailies.
UT has co-sponsored the annual
contest since 1940.
UT’s Edward J. Meeman Foundation
awarded $100 prizes to eight newspapers
for their accomplishments in editorial
writing and public service journalism.
The foundation was established in 1968
at UT to fund the contests as well as
journalism scholarships.
Newspapers receiving Meeman
Awards were The Commercial Appeal
and The Mountain Press, Sevierville, for
EDITOR’S NOTE
We are printing in this Awards
Section all the winning entries
in the following categories: Best
Single Editorial, Best Personal
Column, Best Personal Humor
Column, Best News Photograph,
Best Feature Photograph, Best
Sports Photograph and Best
Single Ad. Most of the photos
were run very large and in color
on the newspaper pages. We
regret that we are unable to print
the winning photos in color, as
large and in the same compelling
manner as when they were
originally published. —Elenora E.
Edwards, managing editor
TPA President Pauline D. Sherrer presents an engraved clock to
Contests Chairman Chris Fletcher, The Daily Herald, Columbia.
public service; Bristol Herald Courier,
Memphis Business Journal, The Daily
Herald and the Buffalo River Review,
Linden, best single editorial; and The
Herald-News, Dayton, and The Courier
News, Clinton, editorials.
The Commercial Appeal also earned
the most first place honors with 11.
It won for make-up and appearance,
community lifestyles, Sunday edition,
editorials, best personal column, best
personal humor column, best news
reporting, investigative reporting,
public service, best sports photograph
and best special issue or section.
The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro,
won five first place awards, for make-up
and appearance, local features, editorials, best spot news story and headline
writing.
Winners of four first-place awards:
•Memphis Business Journal, for best
single editorial, best personal column,
best education reporting and investigative reporting, and
•The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville,
for best single feature, investigative
reporting, best sports photograph and
best special issue or section.
Winners of three first place awards:
•The Erwin Record, for best spot news
story, headline writing and promotion
of newspapers
•The Standard Banner, for make-up
and appearance, best single feature
and headline writing, and
•The Tennessean, Nashville, for
sports writing, best spot news story
and best news photograph.
Other first place award winners:
We want your news!
Got an exciting bit of news about innovations at your newspaper, or
has someone at the paper received an award? A promotion?
The Tennessee Press managing editor wants to be sure we don’t miss
anything important about you. Then we can tell your friends at other
newspapers.
If you have news for us, contact the M.E. at (865) 457-5459 or
[email protected].
•Chester County Independent, Henderson, sports writing and best feature
photograph
•News Sentinel, Knoxville, local
features and best single feature
•Southern Standard, McMinnville,
local features and sports writing
•The Courier News, make-up and
appearance and editorials
•The Herald-News, editorials and best
personal humor column
•The Mountain Press, public service
and best feature photograph
•The News Examiner, Gallatin, best
news reporting and best special issue
or section
•Ashland City Times, community
lifestyles
•Bristol Herald Courier, best single
editorial
•Buffalo River Review, best single
editorial
•Carroll County News-Leader, Huntingdon, best news reporting
•Citizen Tribune, Morristown, community lifestyles
•Crossville Chronicle, best feature
photograph
•Herald & Tribune, Jonesborough,
best personal humor column
•Livingston Enterprise, best news
photograph
•Monroe County Advocate & Democrat, Sweetwater, best single feature
•Mt. Juliet News, public service
•News-Herald, Lenoir City, best spot
Dye
news story
•Overton County News, Livingston,
best single advertisement
•The Cordova Beacon, best personal
column
•The Courier, Savannah, best news
photograph
•The Daily News, Memphis, promotion
of newspapers
•The Daily Post-Athenian, best news
photograph
•The Daily Times, Maryville, sports
writing
•The Elk Valley Times, Fayetteville,
community lifestyles
•The Humboldt Chronicle, best special
issue or section
•The Leader, Covington, public
service
•The Milan Mirror-Exchange, best
education reporting
•The Millington Star, best sports
photograph
•The Oak Ridger, best personal
column;
•The Portland Leader, local features
•The Wilson Post, Lebanon, best sports
photograph
•Union City Daily Messenger, best
•Weakley County Press, Martin,
investigative reporting.
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 3
Awards luncheon
factoids
•Total number of attendees: 154
•Member newspapers represented: 49, with 135 attendees
•Dailies: 20, with 57 attendees
•Non-dailies: 29, with 78 attendees
•Member paper with the most
attendees: The Daily Herald,
Columbia, with 11
Jan Witherspoon, The Portland Leader, with Hank Dye of UT and the
newspaper’s first place award. UT has provided photos similar to this one
to all first place winners.
The Tennessee Press
AUGUST 2007
Awards - 19
TAPME recognizes top newspaper writers, photographers
The Tennessee Associated Press
Managing Editors (TAPME) presented
annual writing and photography awards
in a ceremony July 20 in Nashville.
Chad Roedemeier, news editor for
the Associated Press in Tennessee, announced awards, which were presented
by Bureau Chief Adam Yeomans. He
was assisted by Delila Vassar, administrative assistant.
Before presentation of the awards,
Yeomans thanked the Tennessee Press
Association for its cooperation in setting up and coordinating both awards
events. The TPA awards luncheon followed the AP event.
He introduced Vassar; Roedemeier,
saying the news editor oversees 16
AP representatives in four cities; and
Mark Humphrey, who handled the
PowerPoint presentation and whom
Yeomans described as one of the top
photographers in the country. Humphrey had just celebrated 25 years with
AP in Tennessee.
Yeomans talked about new initiatives
of AP such as AP Exchange. He pointed
out that the News Sentinel, Knoxville,
and The Commercial Appeal, Memphis,
now have streaming video, two of the
first newspapers in the nation to do
so. He said AP had decided against a
rate increase for the second consecutive year.
The AP Web site for the state is www.
ap.org/tennessee.
Following is the list of TAPME award
winners.
DIVISION I
WRITING
Daily deadline reporting
1. Staff, The Tennessean, Nashville,
“Deadly Winds”
2. Mike O’Neal and Lauren Gregory,
ChattanoogaTimes Free Press, “School
Bus Crash Kills 3”
3. Halimah Abdullha and Richard
Locker, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, “Corker Conquers”
Features reporting
1. Cindy Wolff,The Commercial Appeal,
Memphis, “Tragedy in a Small Town”
2. Leon Alligood, The Tennessean,
Nashville, “Messages From Heaven”
3. Ashley Rowland, ChattanoogaTimes
Free Press, “New Hope for Hajer”
Sports-outdoor reporting
1. Marion W. Morgan,The Commercial
Appeal, Memphis, “Back to Bruceton”
2. Gary Parris,The Commercial Appeal,
Memphis, “T-Head Tells All”
3. Bryan Mullen, The Tennessean,
Nashville, “Coach, Players See Eye
to Eye”
Business news
1. Sheila Wissner and Janell Ross, The
Tennessean, Nashville, “1 Point”
2. Tom Charlier, The Commercial
Appeal, Memphis, “Mystery Mississippi”
3. Dale Flessner, Chattanooga Times
Free Press, “TVA in Transition”
Larry Aldridge, The Daily Times, Maryville,
left, receiving award from Adam Yeomans
Chris Menees, Union City Daily Messenger,
getting congratulations from Adam Yeomans
Malcolm Law Investigative Reporting—Brad Schrade, The Tennessean,
Nashville, “Tennessee Highway Patrol”
PHOTOGRAPHY
Spot news photography
1. John Partipilo, The Tennessean,
Nashville, “Saving a Life”
2. Jae S. Lee, The Tennessean, Nashville, “Tornado Hug”
3. Lance Murphy, The Commercial
Appeal, Memphis, “Fire”
Feature photography
1. Cathy Clarke, News Sentinel, Knoxville, “Mad Cat”
2. Mike Brown, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, “1st Day of School”
3. Dipti Vaidya, The Tennessean,
Nashville, “Mule Man”
Sports photography
1. Mark Weber, The Commercial
Appeal, Memphis, “Hiked up and
Honked off”
2. Dan Henry, ChattanoogaTimes Free
Press, “Soccer Win and Loss”
3. Earl Neikirk, Bristol Herald Courier,
“Don Forget to Brush”
Photojournalism
1. Alan Spearman, The Commercial
2. Lance Murphey, The Commercial
Appeal, Memphis, “9/11 Five Years
Later”
Appeal, Memphis, “Living Visions”
Individual achievement/
body of work in photography
Nashville
2. Dan Henry, Chattanooga Times
Free Press
Appeal, Memphis
DIVISION II
WRITING
1. Staff, The Jackson Sun, “Cruel
Day”
2. Staff, The Jackson Sun, “Hit and
Run”
3. Andrew Tran and Wendy Isom, The
Jackson Sun, “Slain Minister’s Wife Is
Suspect”
Features reporting
1. Pete Wickham, The Jackson Sun,
“Blue Suede Birthday”
2. Skyler Swisher, William Bowers
and Thomas Munro, The Daily Herald,
Columbia, “The Lost Night”
3. Tyrone Tony Reed Jr., The Jackson
Sun, “Prayer Is the Key”
1. David Brandt, The Jackson Sun,
“Growing Pains”
2. John Bice, The Daily Times,
Maryville, “Learning to Crawl”
3. Lindsay McDonald, The Jackson
Sun, “Gunpowder and Mascara”
Business news
1. Ned B. Hunter, The Jackson Sun,
“Diamond Jaxx”
“Kirklands Remodels Its Frame of
Mind”
3. Greg Menza, The Daily Herald,
Columbia, “UGGLA is Big Business”
Malcolm Law Investigative Reporting—Dan Morris, The Jackson Sun,
“Jackson’s Legal Fees”
PHOTOGRAPHY
1. Wes Hope, The Daily Times,
Maryville, “Bear’ly Escaped”
2. John A. Gillis, The Daily News
Journal, Murfreesboro, “Remembering a Hero”
3. Daryl Sullivan, The Daily Times,
Maryville, “Explosive Fire”
Feature photography
1. Aaron Thompson, The Daily News
Journal, Murfreesboro, “Life Tastes
Good”
Maryville, “Pretty in Pink”
3. Joy Kimbrough, The Daily Times,
Maryville, “Princess for a Day”
Sports photography
Maryville, “Season Ended”
Journal, Murfreesboro, “Joy and
Brad Schrade, The Tennessean, accepting a Malcom
Law Memorial Award from Adam Yeomans
Pain”
3. Andrew McMurrie, The Jackson
Sun, “Patrick Willis”
Photojournalism
2. Karen Kraft,The Daily News Journal,
Murfreesboro, “Gone up in Smoke”
Journal, Murfreesboro, “Lady Raider
Champs”
body of work
Maryville
Sun
Maryville
DIVISION III
WRITING
1. David Melson, Shelbyville TimesGazette, “Kidnap Victim”
2. Jeff Farrell, The Mountain Press,
Sevierville, “Jail Time”
3. Staff, The Mountain Press, Sevierville, “Primary Election Coverage”
Features reporting
1. Jeff Farrell,The Mountain Press, Sevierville, “End of the Schmutzer Era”
2. John Carney, Shelbyville TimesGazette, “Veteran Remembers”
3. Gail Crutchfield,The Mountain Press,
Sevierville, “Remember Marge”
1. Mike Hutchens, Union City Daily
Messenger, “Purple Reign”
2. Lionel Green, The Mountain Press,
Sevierville, “Flesh and Blood”
3. Gary Johnson, Shelbyville TimesGazette, “Trice Leaves Lasting Impact”
Business news
1. Chris Rimel, State Gazette, Dyersburg, “Yorkville Telephone Sale”
2. Clint Confehr, Shelbyville TimesGazette, “Part of West End Comes to
Shelbyville”
3. Candice Grimm, The Mountain
Press, Sevierville, “Lock it up”
Malcolm Law Investigative Reporting—Clint Confehr and David Melson,
Shelbyville Times-Gazette, “Estrada
Death”
PHOTOGRAPHY
1. Dallus Whitfield, The Lebanon
Democrat, “Tender Care”
2. Curt Habraken,The Mountain Press,
Sevierville, “Fully Involved”
3. Chris Menees, Union City Daily
Messenger, “Rescued”
Feature photography
Democrat, “Misty Sunshine”
Sevierville, “When Memories Fade”
Democrat, “Tip-Toe Shot”
Sports photography
1. Danny Palmer, Shelbyville TimesGazette, “Safe at Home, Etc.”
Democrat, “Wildcat Wild”
3. David Fuzzell, Union City Daily
Messenger, “Photo Series”
Photojournalism
1. Danny Palmer, Shelbyville TimesGazette, “Rivalry at Rocky Top”
2. Danny Palmer, Shelbyville TimesGazette, “Titans Open Season”
3. David Melson, Shelbyville TimesGazette, “Sorghum Squeezin’”
Messenger
Sevierville
3. Kay Rose, Shelbyville Times-Gazette
From the start
“Our founders didn’t think it a good
idea for the press and state to gang up
on public opinion. So they added to
the constitution a Bill of Rights whose
First Amendment was intended to be
a firewall between the politicians who
hold power and the press that should
hold power accountable.”
Bill Moyers, broadcast journalist, 2004
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
2 - Awards
Board approves fifth group
for 2008 State Press Contests
A major change in the State Press
Contests divisions has been approved
by the TPA Board of Directors for the
2008 UT-TPA State Press Contests.
The contests will have five divisions,
instead of four, and the divisions will
be based on total weekly paid circulation.
Total weekly paid circulation is calculated by the number of days published
each week multiplied by the paid circulation figure listed in the Tennessee
Newspaper Directory. If a separate
daily, Saturday and/or Sunday figure
is listed, then each figure will be used
in the calculation.
The divisions no longer will be established by daily and non-daily criteria,
and that means larger non-dailies
publishing more than once a week will
be competing with the smallest dailies
in the new division three.
The new divisions are as follows:
Group One: Paid combined weekly
circulation of 5,000 or less
Group Two: Paid combined weekly
circulation of 5,001 to 15,000
Group Three: Paid combined weekly
circulation of 15,001-50,000
Group Four: Paid combined weekly
Group Five: Paid combined weekly
circulation of 200,001 and up
Evaluating the contest divisions has
been an issue the Contests Committee
has attempted to address for many
years. At the Feb. 7 TPA Board of Directors meeting, the Board charged the
Contests Committee, the chairman of
which was Chris Fletcher, editor, The
Daily Herald, to consider the divisions
and to make a recommendation to the
board. This change, approved by the
TPA Board on June 28, is the result of
that direction. For all divisions, except
the fifth, it means fewer newspapers will
be competing against each other. The
fifth division will still hold the state’s
largest dailies—the same group of eight
newspapers that formerly competed as
Group Four.
The newly appointed chairman of
the Contests Committee is Victor Parkins of The Milan Mirror-Exchange.
Suggestions regarding the State Press
Contests should be sent to him at victor
@milanmirrorexchange.com.
Consult the chart on the TPA Web site,
www.tnpress.com, to see which division
your newspaper will be in for 2008.
CMYK
API follows up on Newspaper Next
Following up on some of its
Newspaper Next-developed tactics
on how to deal with the disruptive
innovation presented by the Internet,
The American Press Institute (API)
is holding a seminar aimed at smaller
market newspapers—“Inter net
Strategies for Community Markets”—
Sept. 17 through 19 at API headquarters
in Reston, Va.
The seminar is geared toward newspaper managers who have decision-making responsibility for online content,
business management, revenue, marketing or citizen-participation efforts.
2007 STATE PRESS CONTESTS
First place award
Best single ad
Groups III & IV - Dailies
Chattanooga Times Free Press
(Dec. 16, 2006)
Recognizing that cost is a prohibitive
factor for many papers at which the
seminar is directed, API is offering
weekly newspapers a chance to attend
at a reduced rate of $875 a person. To
receive the discount, one should use the
code WKLY when registering online.
The registration site is www.americanpressinstitute.org/07/Internet/.
For more information, one should
contact seminar moderator Mary
Peskin, API’s associate director, at
(703) 715-336 or mpeskin@americanpr
essinstitute.org.
No photo of Shannon York,
designer, is available. He is no
longer with the newspaper.
SPJ
FROM PAGE 17
Award of Merit—Laura E. Walker,
Third place—Don Wood, News
Sentinel, Knoxville
Photo illustration, newspapers
Award of Excellence—Dan Henry,
Award of Merit—Daryl Sullivan, The
Daily Times, Maryville
Third place—Jason Davis, LaFollette Press
Honorable mention—Dan Henry,
Deadline photography,
newspapers
25,000+ circulation
Award of Merit—Angela Lewis,
AUGUST 2007
Third place—Michael Patrick, News
Sentinel, Knoxville
Under 25,000
Award of Merit— Joy Kimbrough,
The Daily Times, Maryville
Honorable mention—Joy Kimbrough, The Daily Times, Maryville
Non-dailies
Award of Merit— Michael R. Moser,
Crossville Chronicle
Feature photography,
newspapers
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence—Kathleen
Greeson, Chattanooga Times Free
Press
Award of Merit—Dan Henry, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Third place—Ashlie White, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Honorable mention—Angela Lewis,
Under 25,000
Third place— Daryl Sullivan,The Daily
Times, Maryville
Non-dailies
Award of Merit—Susan Sharp, LaFollette Press
Honorable mention— Dwane Wilder,
LaFollette Press
Editorial cartoons, newspapers
Award of Excellence—Bruce Plante,
Work for other media – writing
Third place—Steve Row,TheTennessean, Nashville
Honorable mention—Steve Row,The
Tennessean, Nashville
Work for other media – visuals
Award of Excellence—Jigsha Desai,
Lauren Spuhler, Joe Howell, News
Sentinel, Knoxville
Award of Merit—Jigsha Desai,
Lauren Spuhler, Erin Chapin, Katie Kolt,
News Sentinel, Knoxville
All Media – Horace V. Wells, Jr.
Community Service Award
Don Dare and Dave Wignall, WATE-TV,
“Scam alert”
Make ads believable and specific
and exaggerations.
The headline is the most important part of an ad.
“Opportunity.” The second lesson is to be specific.
Research shows that eight out of 10 readers do not
In the context of this advertiser’s two-word headline,
read past the headline of any given ad. You know
“opportunity” means nothing at all. To what kind
from experience that, if a headline doesn’t arouse
of opportunity are they referring? We don’t know,
interest, you simply turn the page.
because they don’t say.
Print is an information medium. That’s why the
Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar once said, “Don’t
best print ads—and their headlines—provide inforbecome a wandering generality. Be a meaningful
mation to readers. It’s as simple as that.
I recently ran across an ad in my files that provides
specific.” The same can be said of advertising.
Legendary copywriter Claude Hopkins wrote, “The
a classic example of what not to do. The headline
weight of an argument may often be multiplied by
shouts, “Unbelievable Opportunity” in big bold type.
Does this headline provide information? No. Does it
making it specific.” To prove his point, he compared
establish credibility for the advertiser? No. Does it John Foust two advertising statements: (1) “Our prices have been
communicate anything of value? No. To understand
reduced, and (2) “Our prices have been reduced by 25
why, let’s take a closer look:
percent.” It’s obvious that the second headline has
“Unbelievable.” When something is exceptionmore impact—because it is specific.
The only way to make “opportunity” work is to use it as
ally good, or exceptionally bad, it is often labeled as being unbelievable. As a sports fan, I’ve heard countless touchdowns, an idea generator and not in a headline. The first step might
home runs and birdie putts described as “unbelievable.” While be to ask, “Opportunity for whom?” or “Opportunity to do
“unbelievable” may be harmless in sports broadcasts, this what?” First, identify a specific target audience. Then figure
word creates more trouble than it’s worth in advertising.
out how that group can benefit from buying that advertiser’s
What does “unbelievable” really mean? Technically speak- product or service.
ing, “un” means “against” or “the opposite of.” That means
Once a specific benefit is identified, the word “opportunity”
that advertisers who use the word “unbelievable” are actually can be dropped. For example, an ad for lakeside homes might
saying, “Don’t believe this ad. It’s filled with lies.” Obviously, evolve from “Unbelievable opportunity” to “Here’s your opthat’s not the message they want to send; but that’s the real portunity to live by the lake”…to “Live by the lake.”
If you’re looking for a guideline to create better advertismeaning.
The first lesson here is to be believable. If you want your ing, consider the opposite of what is represented by the
advertising to have the clear ring of authenticity, if you want words “unbelievable” and “opportunity.” Be believable, and
it to convey information, start by eliminating baseless claims be specific.
Do this, and your ads will be more effective.
The Tennessee Press
AUGUST 2007
FROM PAGE 2
Wasting our money and influence
AWARDS
GENERAL EXCELLENCE
Group I – Non-dailies
The Erwin Record
GROUP II – Non-dailies
The Standard Banner, Jefferson City
GROUP III – Dailies
The Daily Herald, Columbia
GROUP IV – Dailies
The Commercial Appeal, Memphis
MAKE-UP AND APPEARANCE
1. The Courier News, Clinton.
“Design is solid – functional & consistent – Dominant photo for all section
fronts – style carries over to inside pages
– few ugly pages – Question: Why the
wasted space at bottom of page??”
2. Ashland City Times – Matt Anderson, Jennifer Noland
3. The Humboldt Chronicle
4. The Rogersville Review – Joel
Spears, Brian Vaughn
5. Chester County Independent,
Henderson
Group II – Non-dailies
1. The Standard Banner, Jefferson
City.
“This paper works hard to make the
most of its resources – Design is clean
and consistent – Head type is used
with care – Photo folks do a good job
of making the most of what’s there
– The paper seems to serve its readers
pretty well.”
2. The Herald-News, Dayton
3. Crossville Chronicle – Heather
Mullinix
4. Robertson County Times, Springfield – Cindy Kelly, Lisa Boyce
5. Memphis Business Journal
Group III – Dailies
1. The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro.
“What distinguishes The Daily News
Journal from the rest is its ease of navigation for the reader. Really enjoyed the
A2 and C2 pages. Still, I would suggest
more thought to skyboxes, such as the
April 26 edition. And dominant art on
inside pages.”
2. The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville
3. The Daily Times, Maryville
4. The Mountain Press, Sevierville
5. Herald-Citizen, Cookeville
Group IV – Dailies
1. The Commercial Appeal, Memphis.
“A summary: They’re kicking *** &
taking names – Clean design, no gimmicks – Everything is functional – Photos
– and photo use – are excellent – It took
brass ***** to put the kid picture on
1A after the storm – Good decision!!
Easily best of class.”
2. Bristol Herald Courier
3. Chattanooga Times Free Press
4. The Tennessean, Nashville
5. News Sentinel, Knoxville
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 4
BY RANDY MACKIN
Editor
Buffalo River Review, Linden
The excuse, “But
we’ve always had
a Democratic primary,” is no longer sufficient to
justify holding an
election that is a
waste of money,
that diminishes our
Mackin
influence with state
candidates, that creates lame duck office
holders and forces local candidates to
run on a party ticket with which they
disagree.
Cost is always a factor. With only
some exceptions, the expense of staging a primary election is the same as
paying for the August general. Poll
workers must be compensated, notices
and sample ballots must be published,
people must be paid to work the early
voting machines. Why incur all this expense when a general election in August
would serve the same purpose, and the
state would pick up the tab?
Local primaries are paid for with local
taxpayer dollars. If Perry County did
away with primaries, and held elections
in August when state primaries are
required, the costs associated with the
traditional Democratic primary would
be paid by the state.
The Democratic primary will cost
upwards of $10,000, an estimate based
on figures more than a decade old.
In addition to the waste of taxpayer
dollars, the Democratic primary weakens our influence with candidates
vying for state positions. Consider
these facts:
BNP 1
Copyright 2007 by John Foust. All rights reserved.
E-mail JOHN FOUST for information about his training videos
for ad departments: [email protected].
ALERT
The deadline for the
2008 UT-TPA State Press Contests
is 6 1/2 months away.
Stash those potential winners now
so youʼll be prepared to submit entries
in mid-February.
BRYAN MERRIGAN | LIVINGSTON ENTERPRISE
Merrigan
First place award
Best news photo
Group I - Non-dailies
Livingston Enterprise
Awards - 3
Rocky Dial with the Livingston Fire Department stands
in front of a fire caused by lightning. (April 4, 2006)
First place award
Best single editorial
•In May 2002, the last big Democratic
primary, about 50 percent of the voters
went to the polls; in the county general
election in August, which served only
to rubber-stamp the choices made in
May, a mere 25 percent of the voters
cast ballots.
•Four years earlier, in May 1998, 63
percent of Perry County’s registered
voters spoke in the primary. They face
opposition in August, during state
primaries, and again in November
when they face off against the choice
of the opposing party. If Perry County’s
citizens can muster only a 25 percent
turnout in August, why should state
candidates waste time campaigning
here? We certainly cannot produce
enough votes to make a difference in
district House and Senate races, and
our influence in statewide races is
exponentially diminished.
For years, Perry County has been
ignored by state officials. The donkeys
know that Perry County will vote a
strong Democratic ticket. The elephants
know that our GOP base is so shallow
that it can offer little support.
When Perry County officials complain
that we do not have state funds for roads,
that we do not get our share of grants,
that their pleas to state departments are
ignored and unanswered, why would
they expect anything different?
You may have heard the old expression, “Hold your nose and vote.” A
Democratic primary has, more than
once, forced Republicans to “hold
their nose and run.” In a county that
is still strongly Democratic in its
political leanings, past GOP party
members—both those who voted in
Republican primaries or held positions
in the local Republican party—have felt
it necessary to “run” as Democrat, even
though they were not supportive of the
party. The primary practically forces
everyone interested in local elected
positions to be a Democrat, or at least
pretend to be.
Another reason the Democratic primary should be avoided is the creation
of lame duck office-holders incumbents
who did not win the primary and chose
not to do their job, apparently, as an
act of retaliation. Back in the 1980s,
one local official reported for work on
Sept. 1 and found a backlog; only the
bare minimum had been done since the
incumbent lost in May, and nearly four
months of paperwork greeted the new
office-holder on his first day. An August
election would cut down that potential
dead time to less than a month.
The Town of Linden has already
recognized the value of centralizing
our election process. The aldermen have
approved moving its municipal election
from the usual December to the August
general. While this approval will extend
the lengths of their individual terms
during that first year of transition, the
citizens of the city will no longer be
footing the bill for a municipal election
that draws only a very small fraction of
registered voters.
Local Board of Education seats,
which were once also subject to party
primary, have now been shifted by the
state from May to the August election,
allowing those individuals who wish to
be school board members to run without
party affiliations.
Doing away with a local Democratic
primary will not stop candidates from
declaring a party affiliation. You can
still run as a Democrat, or you can
choose to honor the GOP by running
as a Republican. And independent
candidates will find themselves competing against a long list of hopefuls,
rather than enjoying the luxury of
campaigning against a single Democratic nominee.
How can this change be implemented?
It’s very simple. State law allows parties
to call for a primary. If the Perry County
Democratic Executive Committee does
not call for a primary in 2008, there
will not be one. If either party wishes
to hold a useless election, then let the
party pay the expenses. You can be sure
there are Republicans and independents
in the county who have no interest in
helping foot the bill for a narcissistic
Democratic primary.
Next Tuesday, May 2, 57 counties in
Tennessee will hold local primaries.
Thirty-four of those counties have both
Democratic and Republican primaries
on the same day, apparently because
they have a host of candidates running
from both sides of the aisle. In those
situations, primaries may be necessary
because that county has two strong
political parties.
Also on May 2, 23 counties will hold
single party primaries, 11 of those
Republican. Perry County will be one
of only 12 counties statewide that will
hold only a Democratic primary but not
GOP balloting.
As quaint as an old-fashioned, yellow
dog Democrat primary can be, the time
has come to move beyond the antiquated
practice and make our tax dollars work
more efficiently by combining our local elections with the state-mandated
August general. Perhaps, in the absence
of a Democratic primary, the county
can avoid lame duck office-holders, Republicans disguised as Democrats will
not feel coerced to deny their personal
political convictions, and, maybe, Perry
County’s voters will earn the attention
they deserve from some state candidates
who have found it all too easy in the past
to pretend we did not exist.
(April 26, 2006)
Calling
“The First Amendment is not selfexecuting. We need judges to apply it
and thus breathe life into it.”
Floyd Abrams
Lawyer, 2005
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
18 - Awards
The Tennessee Press
AWARDS
FROM PAGE 3
CMYK
LOCAL FEATURES
1. The Portland Leader.
“Stories are well written. Photos put
the icing on the cake. Great staff-written
stories and photos. Nice mix of local
features and news.”
2. The Courier News, Clinton
3. Monroe County Advocate & Democrat, Sweetwater –Tommy Millsaps, Mia
Rhodarmer, Melissa Kinton
4. Carroll County News-Leader,
Huntingdon – Shirley Nanney, Ron Park,
John Latham
5. Mt. Juliet News
1. Southern Standard, McMinnville.
“The top winners were close, but the
Southern Standard took first because of
its apparent ability to take local people &
make national stories, or to take national
stories & people to make it local news
& features. This paper also shone for
its successful attempts to feature ‘the
rest of the story,’ from a minister’s wife
on trial for murdering her husband to a
local resident who traveled to Africa to
police officers disgruntled about new
policies. Good inside columns, features
about local happenings & a variety of
topics. Nice layouts, too.”
City – Steve Marion, Dave Gentry,
Gayle Page
3. News-Herald, Lenoir City
4. Crossville Chronicle
AUGUST 2007
•Golden Press Card (chosen
from all Awards of Excellence)
J.J. Stambaugh, News Sentinel, Knoxville, “Homeless, not hopeless”
1. News Sentinel, Knoxville.
“The engaging feature approach is
applied to all stories from conception
to writing and photography to design.
You draw me into each story and then
deliver on your promise.”
3. The Tennessean, Nashville – Nicole
Keiper, Vivi Hoang, Jim Myers
5. Johnson City Press
RON SCHAMING | THE COURIER, SAVANNAH
Schaming
First place award
Best news photo
Group II - Non-dailies
The Courier, Savannah
County firefighters commiserate over the loss of Bruton Branch’s vital fire hall and firefighting equipment.
(June 15, 2006)
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 5
Time to muzzle Justice Department dogs of war
BY TERRY HOLLAHAN
Memphis Business Journal
Wouldn’t it be nice
to write contracts
with your vendors
and include fuzzy,
confusing stipulations? Then you
could accuse the
vendors of violating
the contract, setting
whatever penalty
Hollahan
you wanted. In the
business world those vendors wouldn’t
come back, but in health care it’s a different world.
The settlement last month by Tenet
Healthcare Corp. with the federal Department of Justice may, just may, herald the end of an 11-year quest by federal
prosecutors to put the thumb screws to
large health care companies.
It began under the Clinton administration by career prosecutors and took
on a disturbing formula. Dig through
the thousands of pages of Medicare
regulations and find a way to accuse a
hospital or drug company of fraud, hold
out for a settlement and then crow about
serving the public good.
First place award
That’s essentially what happened with
the two biggest hospital companies. By
the time the feds were through with
Nashville-based HCA Inc., the company
had paid out roughly $3 billion. Tenet,
owner of two hospitals in the Memphis
market, cried uncle at about $2 billion.
Tenet also saw more than $20 billion in
share value disappear.
And with Medicare still about half
the business, both companies must get
back in line for more.
To be fair, there are a number of
Americans who believe that health care
companies must somehow be on the
take. Most people encounter a hospital
maybe once every 15 years, and then
only for a few days. It’s impossible to
comprehend how it costs hundreds of
millions of dollars a year to staff and
equip such a facility, just so it’s ready for
that occasional encounter.When an MRI
costs $5,000 it’s not just the equipment,
Awards - 17
News Sentinel reporter wins 2007 SPJ Golden Press Card Award
“Every section is appealing. The
pictures and the packaging add much.
It’s obvious that this staff looks for the
best way to tell each story, and that
feature approach does much to draw
readers in.”
3. Union City Daily Messenger
– Donna Ryder, Chris Menees, Mike
Hutchens, Glenda Caudle
4. The Daily Herald, Columbia
5. The Oak Ridger, Oak Ridge
Best Single Feature
1. Monroe County Advocate & Democrat, Sweetwater – Joe Gettinger, “The
Lord chose us.”
“This is a story of importance to the
community, and what an opportunity
(to get to interview Ms. Upton). The
lead could have been much stronger.
Maybe start off with highest impact
graph – on the first day of her junior year
The Tennessee Press
AUGUST 2007
but the 1,000 trained specialists, nurses
and technicians waiting to respond.
Likewise, when a person looks at the
tiny pill in his hand, he doesn’t see the
million dollars it took to create that
miracle.
Instead, people see a three-day hospital bill for $40,000 and are certain that
it’s a scam. An entire class of lawyers
reinforces that idea on TV commercials.
So when prosecutors claim fraud, most
people applaud it—even as they take the
medicine that sustains their life.
Federal prosecutors in Memphis have
gone to the opposite extreme and strive
to educate local providers on how to
avoid legal problems.
Elsewhere, much of the vigor seems
to have been drained in the prosecution ranks, and it seems to date to the
moment that Chattanooga’s charity
hospital, Erlanger Medical Center, was
forced to pay $40 million. Many thought
that was too much.
Let’s hope we are at the turning point
where government workers realize
their serving the public good doesn’t
mean tormenting businesses that also
serve the public.
(Aug. 11-17, 2006)
BNP 3
ANTHONY DAKE | THE DAILY POST-ATHENIAN, ATHENS
Alvin Ellis, pastor of Mt. Cumberland Church near
Englewood, looks at the damage inflicted by recent
vandalism. (July 25, 2006)
Dake
First place award
Best news photo
Group III - Dailies
The Daily Post-Athenian, Athens
Deadline/spot news reporting
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence—Edward Lee
Pitts, Ashley Rowland, Chattanooga
Times Free Press
Award of Merit—Brian Lazenby, Ian
Berry, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Under 25,000
Award of Excellence—Jeff Farrell,
The Mountain Press
Award of Merit—Jessica Stith, The
Daily Times
Third place—John Huotari, The Oak
Ridger
Non-dailies
Award of Excellence—Gary Nelson,
General reporting
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence—Ginny LaRoe,
Dave Flessner, Chattanooga Times
Free Press
Award of Merit—Ashley Rowland,
Under 25,000
Award of Excellence— John Huotari,
The Oak Ridger
Award of Merit—Lesli Bales-Sherrod,
Ridger
Non-dailies
Award of Excellence—Jim Dossett,
LaFollette Press
Award of Merit—Michael R. Moser,
Third place—Jack Neely, Metro
Pulse
Features
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence—Emily Berry,
Award of Merit—Kristi L. Nelson,
Third place—Ashley Rowland, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Honorable mention—Mary W. Constantine, News Sentinel, Knoxville
Under 25,000
Award of Excellence— Kara Covington, The Daily Times, Maryville
Award of Merit—Steve Wildsmith,
Third place—John Brice, The Daily
Times, Maryville
Honorable mention—Lesli BalesSherrod, The Daily Times, Maryville
Non-dailies
Award of Merit—Jason Davis, LaFollette Press
Third place—Krista Richmond, Crossville Chronicle
Honorable mention—Lance Cole-
man, Blount Today
Series/package/project writing
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence—J. J. Stambaugh, NewsSentinel, Knoxville
Award of Merit—Andrew Eder, Erin
Chapin, News Sentinel, Knoxville
Third place—Dave Flessner, Jan
Galetta, Emily Berry, Ann Braly, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Honorable mention—Carly Harrington, News Sentinel, Knoxville
Under 25,000
Award of Excellence—Marcus
Fitzsimmons, The Daily Times,
Maryville
Award of Merit—Bonny C. Millard,
Third place—Iva J. Butler, Anna C.
Irwin The Daily Times, Maryville
Non-dailies
Award of Excellence—Becky Blanton, Linda Brewer, Kevin Burcham, The
News-Herald, Lenoir City
Award of Merit—MichaelThomason,
The Advocate-Democrat, Sweetwater
Third place—Susan Sharp, LaFollette Press
Investigative reporting
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence— Hayes Hickman and CynthiaYeldell, News Sentinel,
Knoxville
Award of Merit—J. J. Stambaugh,
Third place—Pam Sohn, Chattanooga
Times Free Press
Honorable mention—Dave Flessner,
Pam Sohn, Chattanooga Times Free
Press
Under 25,000
Award of Excellence—Lesli BalesSherrod, The Daily Times. Maryville
Third place—Rick Laney, The Daily
Times, Maryville
Non-dailies
Award of Excellence— Jason Davis,
LaFollette Press
Award of Merit—Leslie Wylie, Metro
Pulse
Sports reporting
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence—Mike Strange,
Award of Merit—Darren Epps,
Gentry Estes, David Paschall, Mark
Weidmer, Wesley Rucker, Chattanooga
Times Free Press
Under 25,000
Award of Excellence—John Brice,
Award of Merit—Leonard Butts, The
Times, Maryville
Non-dailies
Award of Excellence—Stefan Cooper, Blount Today
Award of Merit—Stefan Cooper,
Blount Today
Third place—Stefan Cooper, Blount
Today
Editorial writing
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence—Lee Anderson, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Award of Merit—Harry Austin, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Under 25,000
No entries in this category
Non-dailies
Award of Excellence— Michael R.
Moser, Crossville Chronicle
Third place—Jason Davis, LaFollette
Press
Honorable mention—Jim Dossett,
LaFollette Press
Personal columns
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence—Mark Kennedy, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Award of Merit—Sam Venable, News
Sentinel, Knoxville
Third place—Mary Fortune, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Under 25,000
Award of Merit—Amanda Greever,
Third place—Linda Albert, The Daily
Times, Maryville
Non-dailies
Award of Excellence—Frank Cagle,
Metro Pulse
Award of Merit—Gary Nelson,
Third place—Michael R. Moser,
Reviews/criticism
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence—Betsy Pickle,
Award of Merit—Trevor Higgins,
Under 25,000
Award of Excellence—Amanda
Greever, The Daily Times, Maryville
Non-dailies
Award of Excellence—Kevin Crowe,
MetroPulse
Headline writing
(No distinction
as to circulation)
Award of Excellence—David Goddard, The Daily Times, Maryville
Award of Merit—Jamie Bumpus,
Third place—Suzanne Foree Neal,
H o n o r a b l e m e n t i o n — M a rcus Fitzsimmons, The Daily Times,
Maryville
Page one design, newspapers
25,000+ circulation
Martin, News Sentinel, Knoxville
Award of Merit—Rick Moore, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Third place—Lin Parker, Chattanooga
Times Free Press
Under 25,000
Award of Excellence—David Goddard, Richard Dodson, The Daily Times,
Maryville
Non-dailies
Award of Excellence—Tessa Bright,
Blount Today
Inside page design
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence—Melanie Horton, News Sentinel, Knoxville
Award of Merit—Sara Jackson, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Third place—Amanda Martin, News
Sentinel, Knoxville
Under 25,000
Award of Merit— Amanda Greever,
Third place—Kara Covington, The
Non-dailies
Award of Excellence—Krista Richmond, Crossville Chronicle
Informational graphic,
newspapers
Award of Excellence—Beck Towery,
Award of Merit—Rey Pineda, News
Sentinel, Knoxville
Art illustration, newspapers
SEE SPJ, PAGE 18
First place award
Best single ad
Groups I & II - Non-dailies
Overton County News, Livingston
Darren Oliver
(March 15, 2006)
CMYK
4 - Awards
AWARDS
5. The Covington Leader – Steven
Liles, Greg Little, Gwen Matheny
FROM PAGE 15
– Dan Henry
5. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Clay
Owen
CMYK
BEST SPECIAL ISSUE OR SECTION
1. The Humboldt Chronicle – April
Jackson, Beverly Ward, Danny Wade,
“Strawberry Festival”
“I want to live in Humboldt now! Really
shows community spirit.”
2. Mt. Juliet News
3. The Millington Star
Henderson
5. Independent Herald, Oneida
1. The News Examiner, Gallatin, “Tornado Recovery”
“Head & shoulders above any other
entry in this category. To produce a 44pg. section of this depth within a month
of such a major disaster is nothing short
of amazing. Before & after photos were
a brilliant idea. Stories by the children
were very poignant. Outstanding!”
2. Southern Standard, McMinnville
City
4. The Knoxville Journal – Nancy Morris, Beth Emge, Stephanie Edwards,
Chris Shields, Jeremy Z. Young, Kevin
Pettiford, Steve Patterson, Patricia Griffeth
1. The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville,
“Welcome Home”
“A class effort that hits all the bases
in honoring troops returning home, their
families’ sacrifices and their fallen comrades. Well-written and presented.”
2. The Daily News, Memphis
3. Citizen Tribune, Morristown
5. The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro – Gary Frazier, Linda Sneed,
Lindsey Jackson
1.The Commercial Appeal, Memphis,
“Mystery Mississippi”
“The Commercial Appeal’s long journey down an apparently long-pondered
but seldom-evaluated topic truly sheds
light on a Mississippi River that even
many locals don’t know. Put forth brilliantly by writer Charlier and shooter
Spearman, the first part of “Mystery
Mississippi –The RiverYou Don’t Know”
sets the stage for what promises to be
an informative and eye-opening trip
(in words and photo) for readers, one
that drives home what the mighty river
means to them and how its presence
affects their lives. Writing, photography
and design are stellar.”
2. The Jackson Sun
Anderson, Randles schedules
Newspaper Circulation Bootcamp
Anderson, Randles and Associates
has scheduled its 13th Newspaper
Circulation Bootcamp. The event will
be Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 12
and 13, in Atlanta.
The program is designed for circulation directors, especially new ones,
mid-level/future circulation executive
staff, publishers, general managers,
editors and financial managers.
The subject to be covered is “What
You Should Know About Your Circulation Department and How to Build
Circulation Volume.” Sessions are set
on circulation overview, department
structure, subscriber marketing, pricing strategies, customer service, single
copy sales, metrics and tracking and
financial management.
Leaders will be Don Michel and Phil
Hanna.
The registration and payment deadline is Aug. 13. The first day’s session
starts at 8 a.m., and the final session
the next day, at 3 p.m.
The rate for staying at the Fairfield
Inn/Suites near the airport is $99 plus
tax. A free shuttle delivers people from
the airport to the inn.
The cost is $595 for the first attendee
and $495 for each additional person
from the same newspaper. This covers
sessions, materials, luncheons and
coffee breaks only.
For more information, one can
contact Michel at (319) 390-9288 or
[email protected] or Hanna at (770)
252-5900 or paperboy@summergrove.
net.
AUGUST 2007
Flavor of the games? Rich, dark, creamy…
BY GEOFF CALKINS
TURIN, ITALY—
So I was standing
there, having given
up my seat to Nancy
Kerrigan…
You gave up your
seat to Nancy Kerrigan?
Yes.
Why?
Calkins
On account of
the strike.
What strike?
The bus strike.
Right. Late at night. The reporters
were headed to the buses, on their way
home, when the drivers all stood up and
left. Someone said they decided to have
a strike. Or maybe a smoke. Whichever,
that’s when it occurred to me.
What?
I need to strike. To take a day off,
to kick back, to drink red wine and
eat good food and smoke unfiltered
cigarettes like the Italians do.
But you don’t smoke.
True enough. But I like chocolate! And
I had discovered something called the
ChocoPass, which enables you to pay
one price and walk around the city and
eat chocolate at all the finest chocolate
shops in Turin.
Are there a lot of chocolate shops
in Turin?
Are there a lot of barbecue shops in
Memphis?
There are hundreds of chocolate
shops in Turin. Chocolate shops and
lingerie shops. Which is odd, really.
Why?
Wouldn’t too much of one cause you
to outgrow the other?
Hmmmm. But why the emphasis on
chocolate?
A man from Turin invented it.
Nu-uh.
Uh-huh.
Willie Wonka invented it.
No.
First place award
Best personal humor column
Group IV - Dailies
The Swiss, then.
Ahhh, a common misconception.
In the late 18th century, a man named
Doret invented a machine to make solid
chocolate.
Before then it was hollowed-out chocolate, like our Easter bunnies?
No, it was liquid chocolate, like our
Hershey’s Syrup. Until Doret came up
with his invention. Which was then
taken to Switzerland and, to think, the
Swiss have a reputation for being peaceful, neutral people.
It’s outrageous!
Unless you consider that the Italians
get credit for pasta, which Marco Polo
actually took from the Orient.
Marco?
Polo.
Marco?
Polo. You really have had too much
chocolate, haven’t you?
Exactly! The first stop was a place
called Pepipo, where they gave me and
a colleague pure, black chocolate syrup
in a teacup. It was rich.
How rich was it?
Pepipo is near the plaza where the “Today Show” has set up shop. You’ve seen
the people jumping up and down behind
the set? My colleague had a theory.
Yes?
They’d all been to Pepipo. Anyway,
then it was on to Stratta, where they
gave me pralines “made of extra bitter
chocolate mixed with cinnamon, ginger,
mint and ginger lemon.” Just then, a
funeral procession went past.
Tragic.
Death by chocolate. But onward we
marched, undaunted, to Café Torino and
Guido Gobino and Gertosio. At Gertosio,
they had chocolate pasta and a large
chocolate cabbage in the window.
Chocolate cabbage?
Because it’s important to eat your
vegetables. And then we came to Al
Bicerin, the Mecca, the city’s delicious
nougaty center. They sell something
called bicerin, which is a glass filled
with chocolate, then coffee, then a
thick layer of cream on top of it. We
ordered two. We sat at an outside table.
We drank our bicerin and contemplated
life and said, ‘Hey, isn’t that Nancy
Kerrigan?’”
Was it?
Yes! She went into the shop. She went
in for so long, we wondered if she’d
come out as Tonya Harding.
Then she emerged. And kept shooting glances at me. Shyly, she sent an
emissary.
“Can we use your table?”
Oh.
“We’re here with ‘Entertainment
Tonight.’”
Ahhh.
But you felt dopey.
Yes, but then the play started!
The play?
The rehearsal of a play to be out on in
the square that evening. It was glorious!
They played Puccini! I asked Tonya, the
director, what it was about.
“Chocolate,” she said.
Naturally.
How did all this go over with the
“Entertainment Tonight” crew?
Not very well, actually. They were
trying to film Kerrigan drinking a
bicerin. They needed quiet. So they
hired a thug to whack the director on
the knee…
Did not.
Ok, you got me. But they did ask the
players to stop rehearsing. Which did
not go over very well with Tonya.
“They needed to interview this girl,”
she said.
Any idea who she is?
“I do not care,” she said. “The play
will suffer.”
So that’s how it ended, with suffering,
and art, and Nancy.
(Feb. 25, 2006)
Four out of five newspaper Web site readers also read printed edition
A new study recently released by the
Newspaper National Network LP, conducted by Scarborough Research, found
that 81 percent of newspaper Web site
users also read the printed newspaper
in the last seven days. Crossover users
(those who used both print and online
newspapers in the past seven days) have
deep affinity with both their printed
newspaper and their newspaper Web
site, and 83 percent say, “I love both
my printed newspaper and visiting my
newspapers Web site.” Crossover users
visit their newspaper Web site to:
1. Access breaking news (96%)
2. Find articles seen previously
(85%)
3. Find things to do/places to go
(72%).
Jason E. Klein, president and chief ex-
ecutive officer of NNN, said “The study
shows that the core newspaper reader
now accesses his or her local newspaper
across multiple formats and is deeply
engaged: 83% of crossover users say
their newspaper site will be among their
primary destinations five years from
now.”The study found that newspaper
Web site-only users are 55 percent
female, while crossover users are only
48 percent female. The main reasons
newspaper Web site-only users cited for
using newspaper Websites are:
1. Accessing local news (84%)
2. Entertainment information (74%)
3. Food or restaurant information
(58%)
Newspaper Web site-only users are a
Web-savvy group, as 52 percent write or
read blogs and 46 percent have joined a
Web community.
The two segments differ in the time of
day they use newspapers:
1. Crossover users are more likely to
read their printed newspaper in the morning (63% read the printed newspaper
before 10) and access their newspaper Web
site in the afternoon or evening (46%).
2. Newspaper Web site only users are
more likely to access the Web site in the
morning (49% of Web site-only users
access the Web site before 10 vs. 34% of
crossover users).
Contrary to some perceptions, the Web
has not hurt overall newspaper consumption, as 87% of crossover users report
that their time spent with newspaper
media has increased or remained the
same versus only 12% who say time spent
has decreased.
Other key study findings:
The last time you read or looked into
any printed copy of the (Newspaper
Name):
1. Read last 7 days: 81%
2. Read 8-30 days ago: 9%
3. Read longer than 30 days ago: 7%
4. Never read: 3%
Combined time spent with print and
Web-based newspaper media since you
began using a newspaper Web site:
1. 52% remained the same
2. 35% increased
3. 12% decreased
4. 1% Don’t know
For more information, visit www.
naa.org to find the NNN Newspaper
Footprint Study.
The Tennessee Press
AUGUST 2007
AWARDS
FROM PAGE 4
at Clinton High School, Gail Upton was
escorted by armed soldiers and tanks.
. .or one of your other pow! graphs.
Loved the story.”
2. The Cordova Beacon
3. The Erwin Record – Mark A.
Stevens
4. The Westmoreland Observer
5. The Millington Star – Brett
Wainger
City – Steve Marion, “Still fighting for
their lives”
“Compelling. Great use of quotes
and description.”
2. The Tullahoma News
– James Clark
– Christopher Sheffield
“Survivor’s story.”
“The ‘appreciation’ nearly brought me
to tears.The story was skillfully reported
by a writer who let her subject do all
the work. Lesser writers would have
added violins.”
2. The Daily News, Memphis – Rosalind Guy
3. The Daily Herald, Columbia – Greg
Menza
4. The Daily Herald, Columbia – Thomas Munro, Chris Fletcher
1. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Matt
Lakin, “All that remains”
“The breadth of the story made it
the best of a very, very competitive
category. There were 16 entries in this
category; the ones that did not make the
cut would probably be winners against
any other competition, any other year.
This story, however, stood out. It was
more than a report on a family’s grief;
it gave us insight into the perpetrator,
the legal system, and the realities beyond one terrible accident. A story that
informed us and made us empathize.
Well done!”
2. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Kevin
Cowan
3. The Commercial Appeal, Memphis
– Bob Mehr
5. The Tennessean, Nashville – Leon
Alligood
COMMUNITY LIFESTYLES
1. Ashland City Times – Randy
Moomaw, Jennifer Noland, Matt
Anderson.
“Great variety of stories about people
and what they are doing. Excellent use
of quotes to bring stories to life. Be
consistent with your society news.
We know where baby Austin Lee’s
ancestors lived, but not his parents or
grandparents. Some photos are played
too big (2 columns for military – what
about a half-column headshot) and
some too small. Some sports photos
could benefit from cropping. Wonderful
parade photo pages. Loved the health
articles by Moomaw – so important
to inform readers about these topics.
Not too many papers use tabs for community news – refreshing!”
2. Macon County Chronicle, Lafayette
3. The Erwin Record – Bryan Stevens, Keith Whitson, Mark A. Stevens,
Jerry Hilliard, Anthony D. Piercy, Lesley
Hughes, Donna Rea
4. Herald and Tribune, Jonesborough
– Debbie Cash, Heather E. Seay, Charlie Mauk, Lynn J. Richardson, Hope
DeWitt
Huntingdon – Ron Park, John Latham,
Shirley Nanney
1. The Elk Valley Times, Fayetteville
– Lucy Carter, Laurie Pearson, Sandy
Williams, Paul Henry.
“What a wonderful job! You get a lot
of great people news onto these pages,
but the eye isn’t conflicted on where to
go first.These pages are clearly a priority
at your newspaper, and I’m sure your
readers appreciate them.”
Awards - 5
First place award
Best news photo
Group IV - Dailies
The Tennessean, Nashville
Partipilo
JOHN PARTIPILO | THE TENNESSEAN, NASHVILLE
Nashville firefighters pull James Hurt from his home on
Green St. that was engulfed in flames.Two others rescued
from the blaze died of smoke inhalation and severe burns.
Hurt, 73, was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical
Center and was in critical condition. The fire began in a
rear bedroom of the house. (Nov. 3, 2006)
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
16 - Awards
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 6
Culleoka school door flap opens on wider concerns
BY SKYLER SWISHER
Staff writer
How many Maury
County school bureaucrats does it
take to change a door
frame? Apparently,
all of them is not
enough.
Since the beginning of the school
Swisher
year, a set of doors
that swing the wrong way in violation
of fire codes has delayed the opening of
the otherwise complete Culleoka Unit
School library.
School officials first learned of the
violation in the spring, but eight months
later, students remain barred from the
library. And even though a state fire
marshal says the problem is a design
flaw created by the architect, our school
system has been pushing taxpayers to
cough up $6,600—an amount worthy
of the Pentagon’s purchasing department—for repairs.
Director of Schools Eddie Hickman,
whose authority over the $13 million
unit schools renovation is near absolute, refuses to answer our questions
about the issue. The School Board
signed Hickman’s hall pass in Septem-
First place award
Group III - Dailies
ber 2005, when its members abdicated
their responsibility for overseeing him
by voting to indefinitely postpone discussion on construction changes.
His has left no one around to answer
questions such as when the library will
reopen, why the issue was not addressed
earlier, why the repair is going to cost so
much and why the architect, SSOE Inc.,
should not pay for its own mistake.
One of the few officials who has addressed the situation is School Board
Chairman Shaw Daniels, who just happens to work for SSOE. Daniels initially
blamed the codes violation on the first
marshal “changing his mind.” When
that official made it clear the fault lay
with SSOE for submitting faulty plans,
Daniel took another tact, arguing the
$6,600 needed to swap the door frame
would come not from tax dollars, but
“cost savings” achieved by SSOE.
“Cost savings?” Who is he kidding?
Cost savings are provided by companies
that stick to original bids and don’t try
to double-charge clients for a job they
bungled.
The episode highlights a few problems we believe should be addressed
immediately by our school and county
officials:
•The school system needs to hire
a facilities manager. Hickman and
Budget Director Walter Bobo do not
have the time or expertise to effectively
supervise the district’s growing construction needs.
This was pointed out in an April
performance review that cost taxpayers
$150,000, but it has yet to be discussed by
the School Board. If officials were waiting for another clue, the eight-month,
$6,600 Culleoka door debacle ought to
be enough to open their eyes.
•The School Board should rescind its
silly gag rule on construction matters
and appoint a committee to review the
entire unit school renovation project.
There is a growing chorus alleging poor
design, poor execution and overcharging in construction at the unit schools,
all of which was supposed to have been
completed 10 months ago. The committee should investigate the complaints,
find out what’s left to be done, determine
who should pay for problems and then
report to the School Board and the public. Someone needs to ensure taxpayers
that $6,600 in Culleoka isn’t just the tip
of a miserable iceberg.
•Daniels’ glaring conflict of interest
must not be allowed to continue. He
previously agreed not to vote on any
issue involving payment to SSOE, but
then he voted to keep the board from
discussing construction changes.
A School Board chairman’s only
allegiance should be to children and
the citizens who fund schools through
taxation. He should be an advocate for
them at all times, ensuring that we get
the best possible schools for the least
possible expense. Daniels’ remarks
make it clear that his priorities—at
least when it comes to construction—lie
elsewhere.
•It’s high time for both the County
Commission and the School Board to
adopt strong ethics policies that clearly
define what constitutes a conflict of
interest and then enforce those policies.
Daniels has plenty of company when it
comes to potential conflicts of interest
on our elected boards—his are not even
the most obvious.
At a time when Tennesseans’ trust
in government has hit rock bottom,
Maury County’s elected officials need to
remember that the doors of public favor
can always swing both ways.
(Oct. 15, 2006)
AWARDS
FROM PAGE 5
2. The Covington Leader – Gwen
Matheny
5. Manchester Times
CMYK
1. Citizen Tribune, Morristown.
“Good use of graphics! Lots of local
people – weddings/births/columns.
Great section. Good feature stories on
front to pull readers in.”
2. The Newport Plain Talk – Kathy
Barnes-Hemsworth, Angela Hull, Dion
Dykes Sr.
3. The Daily Herald, Columbia – Marvine Sugg
5. The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro
“I’m blown away. Submitted family
photos, stories charging racism, photos
of sweet old dogs, and page treatment
on par with some national dailies.You’ve
got it all and treat it beautifully.”
2. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Susan
Alexander, Chuck Campbell, Lynn
Lewis
4. Johnson City Press – Jan Hearne
SPORTS WRITING
Henderson – James A. Webb.
“Good variety of stories. In-depth &
personal look at individuals within story.
Girls’ game too – good subject matter
development. Good quotes.”
2. The Erwin Record – Kevin Lewis,
Jerry Hilliard
3. Weakley County Press, Martin
– Stephanie Sturgis
4. The Bartlett Express – Mike
O’Kelly
5. Smithville Review
– Rob Nunley, Dale Stubblefield
“Entry shows outstanding depth by
showcasing features, gamers, news
& stories not only about prep sports.
Writing could use polishing but this
section knows how to ensure local
readers get local input that relates to
& interests them.”
2. LaFollette Press – Dwane Wilder
3.The Standard Banner, Jefferson City
– Darren Reese
4.The Courier, Savannah – Brian Reid,
Amy Reid, Shelia Bomar
5. Robertson County Times, Springfield – Joshua R. Wilkins
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 7
Tennessee Press Association
thanks the following:
The University of Tennessee Office of Public Relations
and members of the staff, Hank Dye, Charles Primm, Karen
Collins, Amy Blakely and Amy Rummel
and the School of Journalism
for the excellent relationship that has existed
more than 50 years, during which time UT has participated in
the implementing of the UT-TPA State Press Contests and has
provided plaques and certificates and assisted in various other
facets of the awards event,
and
Chris Fletcher, editor
of The Daily Herald, Columbia,
2006-07 Contests Committee chairman,
and
Members
of the 2006-07 TPA Contests Committee
for their contributions, guidance
and support of the contests.
AUGUST 2007
AWARDS
FROM PAGE 14
1. The Tennessean, Nashville, “2 die
in house fire”
“The strongest spot news image
we’ve seen in all of the categories we
judged. Nothing is wasted – flames blast
out the windows while firefighters pull a
badly injured man to safety. This photo
gives the reader a glimpse of firefighters’
worst nightmares.”
2. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Cathy
Clarke
Clarke
– Angela Lewis
BFP 1
ED FARRELL AND JAMES A. WEBB | CHESTER COUNTY INDEPENDENT, HENDERSON
Farrell
Webb
First place award
Best feature photo
Chester County Independent,
Henderson
Sgt. Dustin M. Adkins – Jan. 6, 1984-Dec.
3, 2006 [funeral] (Dec. 14, 2006)
‘The Jungle’ must be tamed
BY ANDREA HOPKINS
Bristol Herald Courier
The tangle of
weeds, trees and
manmade debris
known as “The Jungle” sits a heartbeat
away from downtown Bristol.
Yet, this no man’s
land, where human
Hopkins
predators rule, was
unknown to many
in the city until a man died last week
as a result of a savage beating inflicted
in its confines.
Jerry Stout’s death is a tragic wakeup call. “The Jungle” is a blight on the
city that can no longer be ignored. It is
a safety hazard for those who work nearby and for the homeless and hard-luck
types who venture into its overgrown
recesses; it must be eliminated.
Cut the weeds, underbrush and
trees that provide ample cover for
those whose hearts harbor criminal
intent. Secure the empty buildings.
If they cannot be secured, tear down
the abandoned loading docks that
once served industry but now serve as
makeshift shelter for some of the city’s
homeless residents. Add fences and
security lights around the businesses
that still operate.
It’s time to tame “The Jungle.”
The responsibility for cleaning up
this urban eyesore rests first with the
private property owners who hold the
deeds to this narrow, multi-acre strip of
land between Commonwealth Ave. and
Bob Morrison Blvd. That includes Nor-
First place award
Group IV - Dailies
folk Southern, which is responsible for
the area around the railroad tracks that
traverse a portion of the property.
The owners should have paid attention
earlier but did not. Stout’s death—and
the potential legal ramifications that
might arise from it—should prompt
action now.
If the owners won’t clean up the
property, the city of Bristol Virginia
must act. The city attorney suggests
the junk ordinance and code sections
dealing with overgrown properties
give the municipality the authority it
needs to effect a cleanup. The city should
consider sending inmate work crews
to cut brush and pick up the trash and
debris strewn across the site; then, the
city should send the bill to the property
owners.
“The Jungle” didn’t grow overnight.
It flourished as a result of years of
disinterest and neglect.
In Mach 2005, a series of Bristol
Herald Courier articles on homelessness in Bristol reflected the reality of
life in “The Jungle.” Mattresses, quilts
and makeshift bedding litter the old
loading docks. Alcoholism, drug abuse
and mental illness haunt many of the
residents—people who are alive but not
really living. Female residents faced
constant threat of sexual abuse.
Even hardened residents of the street
sense the danger.
“In here, you don’t see nothing. You
don’t hear nothing. You don’t know
nothing,” said Mike Countiss as he led
a reporter on a tour of “The Jungle.”
That law of the jungle proved true for
Jerry Stout. The 54-year-old was beaten,
robbed of a small amount of cash and
left for dead in the weeds two weeks ago.
Hours passed before someone called
police. Even after they were notified,
police had difficulty locating Stout’s
battered and broken body.
The gravely injured man made it to the
hospital but never recovered.
If investigators know what attracted
Stout to “The Jungle,” they aren’t saying. The reason he entered “The Jungle”
matters not. Stout was a human being.
He has a mother, a brother, sisters and
nieces and nephews who grieve.
A niece, Shannon Abele, made a public plea to the city to tear down “The
Jungle” as a lasting tribute to her uncle.
Such decisive action would bring something positive from a family’s pain.
Further, it would not hurt the city’s
homeless, even those who prefer hiding
in “The Jungle” and indulging their
vices or battling their demons in private.
The present scenario encourages the
strong to prey on the weak. It provides
cover for all manner of criminal acts,
from prostitution to illegal drug use.
And it does nothing to assist those with
substance abuse problems or mental
illness.
A better solution is needed. Tame
“The Jungle.”
(Sept. 26, 2006)
The Tennessee Press
AUGUST 2007
BEST FEATURE PHOTOGRAPH
Henderson – James A. Webb, Ed Farrell,
“Sgt. Dustin Adkins”
“A story told visually, with a variety of
angles – and a nice dominant image.”
Henderson – James A. Webb
3. Carroll County News-Leader, Huntingdon – Ron Park
4. The Bartlett Express
5. Monroe County Advocate & Democrat, Sweetwater – Melissa Kinton
1. Crossville Chronicle, “Honoring
the fallen”
“Great composition; gets the feel of
the event.”
City
– Dave Gentry
4. Memphis Business Journal – Alan
Howell
– Curt Habraken, “Alzheimer’s”
“Layering and emotion tell a long story
in one image. Easy call for first.”
2. The Daily Times, Maryville – Daryl
Sullivan
5. CitizenTribune, Morristown – Chuck
Hale
– Kathleen Greeson, “Faces of
TennCare”
“Photographer applies a strong visual
theme to many different subjects & situations. Extremely well photographed,
which carries the package well. We
particularly like the portrait of the Freeman family.”
Awards - 15
– Dan Henry
3. The Jackson Sun – Lindsay McDonald
4. Bristol Herald Courier – Andre
Teague
5. Kingsport Times-News – Erica
Yoon
BEST SPORTS PHOTOGRAPH
1. The Millington Star, “Porche defensive play”
“Great extension by the baseball
player; excellent photo work. Five columns would have been even better.”
2. The Humboldt Chronicle – Barry
DeLoach
O’Kelly
4. Chester County Independent, Henderson James A. Webb, René Webb
1. The Wilson Post, Lebanon – Tommy
Bryan, “Cinderella boots FCS from
the ball”
“At first we couldn‘t figure out why
everyone was so dejected with such a
large trophy. But the storytelling element brings it through for the reader to
the point where we share the dejection
of the players. The dejection is even
layered back through the image all the
way to #17 and even the fans.”
City
3. The Herald-News, Dayton – Cathy
Chapman
– Ronnie Housley
5. News-Herald, Lenoir City – Jammie Graves
– Robert Smith, “Michael Forrest pulls
down a touchdown”
“The player’s catch, and the photo,
were a head above the competition.
Great expression. Well done.”
Sullivan
3. Herald-Citizen, Cookeville – Ben
Winters
4. The Lebanon Democrat – Dallus
Whitfield
– Mark Weber, “Comeback kids”
“A nicely layered photograph – lots to
see, and something different every time
you look – the coach is fired up, the ref
is ready and the players are smirking.
Fun sideline photograph.”
2. Bristol Herald Courier – Earl
Neikirk
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 16
First place award
Best sports photo
Group IV - Dailies
MARK WEBER | THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL, MEMPHIS
Put your dukes down, Coach. It’s going to be OK. John
Calipari has one of the zebras in his sights during his
team’s 68-54 victory over Houston at FedExForum.
(March 11, 2006)
Weber
5-letter words can be just as effective as 4-letter words
BY DAVID CRITCHLOW JR.
Editor, Union City Daily Messenger
Hi, my name is David, and I’m obese.
At least that’s what
my doctor said.
After what I considered an overly
thorough medical
examination, he
studied what he
Critchlow
called an “ideal
weight” pinwheel.
“Let’s see,” he said. “At 6-foot-6,
your ideal weight is around 216 to 218
pounds.”
He glanced up to find me laughing as
I responded, “I can’t get there unless I
cut a leg off and I’m not sure that will
be enough.”
Returning to his pinwheel, He told
me that, based on my height, that between 220 and 260 would be considered
overweight.
“So where does that leave me?” I
asked.
“Obese,” he said bluntly.
Ouch!
“It could be worse,” he said. “At least
you’re not morbidly obese—yet.”
“Ah, what a relief,” I said. “I can take
great comfort in that.”
So there it is. I’m a statistic. America’s
getting fatter and I’m at the head of the
pack (or should that be ‘back of the pack’
or ‘fatback of the pack”).
First place award
Group III - Dailies
Union City Daily Messenger
Either way, as I passed the fast food
restaurant on my way home, I thought
my day couldn’t get much worse.
Looking for comfort, and not with
a loaded double cheeseburger with a
thick layer of mayonnaise this time, I
wandered home to find my wife and a
friend waiting.
I recounted the day’s events, including
the awful five-letter word with which I
had been branded.
Think “obese” is a bad five-letter word?
Try following it up with “loser.”
That one came out as part of a comment from the family friend.
“What about being part of “biggest
losers?” she asked.
“And just what’s that supposed to
mean?” I responded.
It turns out the well-intentioned
friend thought I may want to consider
taking part in Health Quest’s healthconscious but light-hearted “Biggest
Loser” weight loss program.
As they say, good news travels fast.
Word of my obesity traveled quickly,
and I became a top draft pick prospect
for many “Biggest Loser” teams in the
formative stages.
“Look at the bright side,” I was told.
“The first weigh-in isn’t until Sept. 23,
so you can eat all you want until then.
In fact, our team can get together for
pizza and cold beverages the night
before and then have a big breakfast
buffet the day of the weigh-in to tack
on some last-minute weight.”
Great. Now I’m being talked into
going on a two-week eating binge so I
can gain weight—just so I can give it all
up for 10 weeks of punishing workouts
while consuming celery sticks, carrots,
granola bars, vitamins and who knows
what else.
Some people who know I’m considering taking part are already proposing
some very nice names for our team, such
as “Sweat Hogs,” “Blubbering Idiots,”
“Whale Watchers,” “Fat Chance” and
“OB City,” a play on the word obesity, if
you didn’t catch on to that one.
So let me “weigh” the pros and cons.
If I take part in this, I have a chance
to lose weight and my four-person team
has a chance at winning $1,000, a threemonth Health Quest membership and
a one-hour body massage.
Then again, I may just lose weight. Not
much of a con, if I do say so myself.
So guess what? I accept the challenge,
and I challenge anyone to try to keep up
with us. While your teams are weighing
in at Health Quest Sept. 23, our team will
probably head over to a local livestock
barn for our team weigh-in.
Good luck, and may the best team win,
especially if it’s us.
(Sept. 16, 2006)
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
6 - Awards
The Tennessee Press
AWARDS
FROM PAGE 13
“Unique, fascinating & thorough look
inside one of the city’s seamier - &
profitable – industries.”
2. The Tennessean, Nashville – Brad
Schrade
4. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Cynthia
Yeldell, Hayes Hickman
5. Bristol Herald Courier – Matthew
Lakin
CMYK
HEADLINE WRITING
1. The Erwin Record – Jerry Hilliard
“By any measure, these headlines
are wonderfully creative & by far are
the best. Plus, the copy editor made
each fit tough headline-count layouts.
Great work!”
4. The Milan Mirror-Exchange – Bob
Parkins
City
“Very creative while making optimum
use of space – not only good but fit
perfectly.”
2. Memphis Business Journal – Bill
Wellborn
– Seth Wright
4. Independent Appeal, Selmer
5. The Covington Leader
“Excellent wordplay, good, active
headlines with tight counts – great
headlines!”
3. The Daily Herald, Columbia – Alex
Miller
5. Shelbyville Times-Gazette – David
Melson
– Rick Moore
“Excellent headlines, great wordplay
without using puns. Good, active-voice,
crisp headlines.”
4. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Donna
Cruze
– Hank Dudding
PUBLIC SERVICE
1. Mt. Juliet News – Laurie Everett,
“Schools/Teen Games/Help Center”
“Laurie Everett was a clear top reporter in this category. Her stories were
passionate, aggressive, compelling.
Her topics had life & death impact. As a
father of 3,Teen Games broke my heart.
This was a stellar example of true public
service reporting. Editorials, graphics,
logos & strong layout bolstered the
package. Schools also was strong with
real people context & easy-to-digest
charts. Great work all around!!!”
2. The Courier News, Clinton – Johanne Jean-Jacques, Jim Galyon, Ken
Leinart, Ron Bridgeman
4.The Erwin Record – Lesley Hughes,
Mark A. Stevens, Anthony D. Piercy,
Brenda Sparks, Bryan Stevens, Donna
Rea
Wainger
1. The Covington Leader – Greg Little,
Jay Albrecht, “911”
“It’s doubtful that the 911 center’s
director and its board would have been
responsive to calls for reform if not for
the exhaustive efforts of the Leader.
The newspaper fulfilled a vital watchdog role in exposing the shortcomings
both in service and in leadership. Great
work!”
2. The News Examiner, Gallatin
4. The Wilson Post, Lebanon – Zack
Owensby, Jennifer Horton, Sam
Hatcher
5. None
1. The Mountain Press, Sevierville,
“Poverty”
“An ambitious project that shines a
light on a serious and chronic problem
facing the community. The news is
given a human face, making it compelling reading.”
“Dead voters/Election fraud”
“A fine example of reporting &
digging for the story. It took time &
determination to uncover this story
& in doing so served the residents of
Memphis well! Kudos! Way to keep
officials honest!”
4. The Jackson Sun – Dan Morris,
Lindsey McDonald
BEST NEWS PHOTOGRAPH
1. Livingston Enterprise, “Tree cuts
trailer
“Contrasts make this shot; fire,
light and darkness; big house, lone
firefighter.”
AUGUST 2007
The Tennessee Press
AUGUST 2007
Reaching the ‘I’ and ‘Me’ generation
Huntingdon – Shirley Nanney
– David Harrison
5. The Erwin Record – Brenda
Sparks
BY FRAN L. THOMAS
Staff writer
The Cordova Beacon
1.The Courier, Savannah – Ron Schaming, “Fire hall destroyed”
“A great reaction photo of a devastating event. It’s not every day a fire station
burns down and this photo captures the
resulting emotions perfectly.”
2. The Knoxville Journal – Jeremy
Z. Young
3. The Herald-News, Dayton – Jim
Ashley
4. LaFollette Press – Susan Sharp
5. Manchester Times
1. The Daily Post-Athenian, Athens
– Anthony Dake, “Shattered glass”
“Strong graphic appeal added to
quickly understood news content. We
would have liked it better cropped
just to broken glass and the face.”
Whitfield
3. The Greeneville Sun
– Susan W. Thurman
– Curt Habraken
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 15
GARY NELSON | CROSSVILLE CHRONICLE
ROBERT SMITH | THE LEAF-CHRONICLE, CLARKSVILLE
Smith
Kenwood’s Michael Forrest, rear, pulls in a pass for a
touchdown over Harpeth’s James Bullock during the
Montgomery County Football Jamboree at Clarksville
High School. (Aug. 19, 2006)
“Some people tap
their feet, some
people snap their
fingers, and some
people sway back
and forth. I just
sorta do ’em all
together, I guess.”
— Elvis Presley
Evans
Well, President
(George) Bush has
finally figured out what we Southerners
have known all along: he may be the
president, but Elvis is still king.
Last week Bush treated Japanese
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to
a highly publicized tour of Graceland,
where Koizumi, an avid Elvis fan,
enjoyed taking in the sights, dining on
friend chicken and biscuits and becoming the first prime minister to manage
to embarrass his entire nation at once
by belting out “Love Me Tender” at a
karaoke bar. It was a huge diplomatic
success.
Frankly, I don’t know why the administration didn’t think of this sooner.
Imagine if we’d only sent Saddam
Hussein a nice vinyl copy of “Jailhouse
Rock” along with those sanctions. He’d
be shaking his hips, wearing spangled
First place award
The Herald-News, Dayton
jumpsuits and leading his country to
democracy even as we speak. Elvis
Presley has a way of bringing out the
best in folks.
Maybe that’s why so many people still
insist on referring to Elvis’ “alleged”
gravesite. If you go online and type
“Is Elvis Alive?” into a search engine,
you’ll turn up more sites than you reckoned for, believe me. These people are
pretty certain the King lives. One site
even includes a computer-aged image
of Elvis showing what he would look
like at age 70. So we can all be on the
lookout for him. I’m beginning to worry
that a large percentage of the population thinks that the hymn “Because
He Lives” is a tribute to Elvis. I guess
it’s just too darned depressing to think
that someone as talented, handsome and
charismatic as Elvis could die with his
pants down, next to the toilet.
According to the Associated Press,
Koizumi was also quite impressed with
Southern food and culture. Stewards
on Air Force One even served fried
peanut butter and banana sandwiches
Nelson
First place award
Best feature photo
First place award
Best sports photo
Group III - Dailies
The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville
What the world needs now is a ‘big hunk o’ love’
BY RACHEL EVANS
Columnist, The Herald-News, Dayton
Awards - 7
to VIPs. Again, I just don’t know why
the administration didn’t think of this
sooner. Every foreign diplomat should
be introduced to fried food and sweet
tea before making a sweeping judgment
on the U.S. Perhaps we should consider
sending a complimentary KFC to North
Korea right now.
I think there’s just something about
the spirit of Elvis and the culture of
the South that makes folks feel like
they can let loose and be themselves.
Graceland, with its plush and gaudy
decorating, Elvis impersonators, overthe-top memorials and endless bazaar
of tacky, creates an atmosphere of lost
inhibitions. Combine that with Southern hospitality and the “right” kind of
barbecue (pulled, not chopped), and you
have a recipe for peace and good will for
all of mankind.
I think that’s why Graceland receives
more visitors than Hermitage, Monticello, Hearst Castle and the White
House combined. In a world full of
straight-laced historical figures and
uptight leaders, we need to honor the
man who first allowed the world to get
all shook up.
Koizumi left the U.S. for Japan with a
jukebox full of Elvis songs, compliments
of the USA. It’s good to know that our
taxpayer dollars are finally being used
to make a difference in the world.
(July 9, 2006)
AWARDS
FROM PAGE 6
“Division III series make this entry
automatic finalist. Good idea, interesting
information & well written.The interview
at Wal-Mart topped it off perfectly. Stories outside series are also excellent.
Video guy takes me behind the scenes
& workout for coaches is neat. This is
more than x’s and o’s & considerably
more thoughtful than most – if not all
– other entries.”
2. The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro – Adam Sparks, Josh Beasley, David
Boclair, Steve Heath
3.The Daily Herald, Columbia – Marion
Wilhoite, Justin Lamb
4. Herald-Citizen, Cookeville – Buddy
Pearson
5. Union City Daily Messenger – Mike
Hutchens
1. The Tennessean, Nashville.
“Very nice mix, with some excellent
feature writing (Pacman, Moore), news
writing (McNair) and creative angles
(gambling, anti-sports). The last, antisports, is among the best of its kind
of read, and Pacman was a whole of
The Crossville Police Department,
Cumberland County law enforcement
and dozens of others gathered and
gave thanks to those in law enforcement positions who have fallen in the
line of duty. Both Crossville Mayor
J.H. Graham and County Mayor Brock
Hill spoke at the memorial. Mayor Hill
proclaimed May 17 as National Peace
Officers Memorial Day and Week.
Crossville Police Sgt. Brian Eckelson
bows his head as “Taps” is played.
(May 24, 2006)
a read. Nit: with a few exceptions,
stories would have improved with
a 20-30 percent trim. Especially the
long ones, and including Pacman. But
overall, strong.”
4. The Jackson Sun – Bob Heist,
Joshua Parrott
5. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Mike
Strange
SUNDAY EDITIONS
Dailies
“The design of this newspaper makes
it very easy to navigate and very inviting. Centerpieces were exceptional,
particularly the Mississippi River section
& ‘A Family’s Hard Road.” Geoff Calkins
column on Jack Williams ‘touched &
inspired,’ as the Readership Institute’s
experience study would say. His other
columns were top shelf, too. The M &
Viewpoint sections are well planned
& well executed. It’s nice to see Chris
Peck’s column in the paper. Also, a lot
of locals get their pictures in the newspaper. My only quibble – other papers
are doing a better job of driving readers
to their Web sites. The runaway winner
in a category of strong entries.”
I think that I was
born in the wrong
generation. A generation when neighbor cared about
neighbor,whenyour
brother’s burden
instantly became
your own—that’s
the era where my
Thomas
heart feels the most
at home.
Like so many children growing up in
a divorced home, my sisters and I were
all latch-key kids. With my mother away
working as a pasteurizer at the local
milk plant and my father enveloped in
his newest love interest, my sisters and
I often left and returned from school to
an empty house.
As we grew older, we each found things
within our community to fill the void
of having two absentee parents. For
me those void fillers were professional
dance classes and hanging out with the
elderly men and women that sprinkled
our neighborhood.
From my many hours spent with
these forgotten heroes, I garnered a
heart rich in compassion and service
to others. These beautiful men and
women taught me what it meant to live
a life where you cared for your fellow
man—where walking past the pain and
suffering of another became a foreign
concept to the soul.
Escorted through the volumes of their
old photo albums, each of my babas and
mamas transported me to the generation of their childhoods.
Through their eyes I witnesses the
great depression that united a segregated country. I stood at the train depots
of America and welcomed the newest
group of immigrants arriving from Ellis Island and saw their personal welfare
instantly become the responsibility
of every member of their new-found
community.
It was at the feet of my elders I learned
my greatest lesson in life: in a round
world there exists no “I” or “Me,” only
“Us” and “We.”
The generation that my children live
in today is quite different from the one
that raised me. For them, life revolves
around getting and possessing, so much
so that the simple concept of someone
giving to his neighbor instantly becomes a “newsworthy” feature article
in “People” magazine. What a pity.
It’s a shame that it takes individuals
such as Oprah Winfrey, Angelina Jolie
and Madonna to embarrass a country
3. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Rusty
Pabst
4. The Jackson Sun
First place award
Best personal column
The Cordova Beacon
so filled with wealth into the realization
that “you are not rich if your brother
is poor.”
I guess the thing that I can’t understand is, how in just 30 short years
did we forget that surviving life
takes a collective effort? I mean, has
the prosperity that our parents and
grandparents fought so hard to give us
only served to make us a dispassionate,
self-centered society? I just don’t get it,
or perhaps I do.
When I was in college, with funds low
and tuition high, I took a job at a local
hotel as a PBX operator. With almost
no training, I found myself sinking at
even the smallest of tasks and finally
decided to inform my boss that I would
be resigning.
I was amazed when my supervisor
told me, “Oh, just hang in there. It
took me a while to learn the system
and in time you’ll figure it out also.” I
can remember my blood boiling at the
thought that this person who saw me
struggling on a daily basis all along
possessed the ability to help but chose
not to. I couldn’t remain quiet.
Looking at her straight in the eye, I
said, “So you know how to operate this
system, and it never once dawned on you
to train me on how to work it? You would
rather have all the customers miss their
wake-up calls and phone messages
because I don’t know the system than
to take an hour of your time to teach
me how to operate it? What could you
possibly be thinking?”
It was her reply that, to this day,
still saddens my heart. Looking at me
with an expression of surprise, she
replied, “Well, nobody showed me how
to work it, and I had to teach myself,
so why should your experience be any
different?”
Grabbing my things to leave, I turned
to her with tears in my eyes and said,
“That’s the saddest part. That someone,
like yourself, who’s dug themselves out
of a ditch, would stand by and watch the
next person walking down that path fall
into the same hole is simply unforgivable. Congratulations on your newest
promotion. You’ve gone from victim to
victimizer—how does it feel?”
Looking away, my supervisor was
speechless, because deep down inside
she knew I was right.
To me, our current societal mindset
is very similar to that of my former
supervisor: nobody wants to lend a
EDITORIALS
1. The Courier News, Clinton – Ron
Bridgeman.
“Good use of columns to argue for
important local issues. Writing showed
passion and liveliness.”
helping hand to his neighbor. We hem
and haw and make excuses, all the while
justifying our selfishness by quoting the
phrase written by the ancient Greek
playwright Aeschylus, “God helps those
who help themselves.” How incredulous
the thought!
The truth of the matter is this: we all
need each other, and that’s okay.
You know, in all of my 38 years on
earth, I still couldn’t draw you a definitive picture of what the hands and face
of God look like. Nobody can.
I mean, ask the woman who was pulled
out of the burning Twin Towers on Sept.
11 this question, and she’ll probably
say that God’s hands resembled those
of the New York City firefighters who
helped her.
Ask the same question to the parents
of a heart and lung transplant recipient
and they will probably say that God’s
feet look like those of the deceased
donor who gave their child back his
or her life.
The point is, God’s hands and feet
resemble the individual who allows Him
to use them. It’s not rocket science; it’s
just charity.
Within the next 18 months, my
children and I will welcome into our
home a 10-year-old AIDS orphan from
Ethiopia.
On the day that she joins our family, it
will be the fulfillment of a dream that I
have carried in my heart for more than
a decade. Although when I originally
decided to adopt my daughter I was
married, the fact that I am now a single
mother of two hasn’t swayed my desire
to adopt her in the least bit.
My desire to open up my home, and
heart, to another child has everything
to do with the need of the child and
absolutely nothing to do with my current marital status.
To me, leaving this child to live a life
of dire poverty and limited possibilities,
when I had the power to do otherwise,
would be inhumane. Realistically speaking, my future daughter did not choose
to be orphaned or born poor. She doesn’t
possess the ability to change her destiny
on her own accord, but I can.
No matter how much easier it would
be to live a life of self-absorption, the fact
still remains that we are our brother’s
keeper. I can only pray that this generation will grasp hold of the concept
of depositing compassion before they
themselves need to make a withdrawal
from the same account during their
hour of need.
Perhaps the late tennis great Arthur
Ashe said it best when he said, “From
what we get, we can make a living; what
we give, however, makes a life.”
(Nov. 16, 2006)
2. Buffalo River Review, Linden
3. Mt. Juliet News – Laurie Everett
4. Livingston Enterprise – James A.
Mitchell
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 8
CMYK
14 - Awards
AWARDS
FROM PAGE 7
Stevens, Ben Doty, Margaret Banks,
Kenneth Garland
1. The Herald-News, Dayton – John
Carpenter.
“Very nice job. Editorials have a strong
sense of place and are well written. It’s
also nice to see that editorials went
beyond typical government coverage.”
4. News-Herald, Lenoir City – Linda
Brewer
1. The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro – Sam Stockard
“You examine local issues of importance and show leadership in the
community. You offer concrete suggestions.”
– Stan Voit
– Doug Headrick
– Alane S. Megna
5. The Daily Herald, Columbia – Chris
Fletcher
Tent comes down on circus of a job
CMYK
BY BILL WELLBORN
Editor, Memphis Business Journal
A recent call from
a pushy telemarketer reminded me
of a certain summer
when I acted sort of
like he did.
Needing employment between college semesters, I
Wellborn
answered a classified ad that promised $20 a day—cash.
$100 a week sounded pretty good to me
right about then, so I showed up the next
morning at an aging office building in
downtown Little Rock, trooped up a
flight of seedy stairs and entered an
entirely new world.
I found a warren of small offices
packed with scuffed desks and people
sitting at them talking on phones. I spied
a fellow with a huge white mustache
and goatee who was not on the phone. I
figured him to be the man in charge.
Resisting the urge to ask for a twopiece dinner, I announced that I was interested in work. I learned that everyone
present was selling tickets to a circus
that was coming to town. I would work
eight hours a day and be guaranteed
$20 cash—more if I exceeded a certain
quota of tickets.
In 1977, this was a bit more than the
minimum wage of $2.30 an hour, so I
signed on.
I was given a stack of cards with
names, phone numbers and a history
of giving. My job was to misrepresent
myself as a member of a local civic
organization and convince people to
buy circus tickets. The kicker was
that these tickets would be used to
send underprivileged children to the
big top and bring a little joy into their
desperate lives.
The first day was easy. Almost all the
people I called had purchased tickets
the previous year, so all I had to do
was get them to re-up. It hit my quota
and then some, because Col. Sanders
laid two twenties on me when I walked
past his desk.
First place award
It didn’t take long for me to become a
star in that circus ticket-selling game.
The tickets were—get this—$1 each. I
was averaging 20 tickets per call. The
daily cash reward kept coming.
After a week or so, I was moved to an
office occupied by the elite of circus
sellers. I wasn’t exactly welcomed,
probably because they saw me as an
interloper who might cut into their
profits. On some days, I did outsell
everyone in that room, including a
couple of British women who used
their accents to great effect. There was
a friendly fellow in the group who called
his daily payday “milk money,” which
he depended on to feed his children. I
was mostly buying beer with mine but
I didn’t tell him about it.
The English ladies’ sales levels were
pretty steady, but I held my own with
them. My Arkansas accent could sell,
too.
This other fellow, though, abruptly
went on a selling tear that left the rest
of us in his wake. Col. Sanders was
laying five or six twenties on him at
the end of every day. Then the colonel
discovered he was fudging on his sales
numbers. He was publicly canned, and
the English ladies smiled.
I didn’t keep track of how many tickets we sold, but I figured we could have
filled the venue with underprivileged
kids about eight times, and we were
selling a one-day vent.
One day the colonel got rid of everyone but the top sellers. We were told
to call back the folks who had turned
us down. I wasn’t too interested in
hard-sell telemarketing, so I suggested
that maybe we had sold quite enough
circus tickets.
The colonel laughed. The British
women smiled. I took my $20 and hit
the door.
(Aug. 25-31, 2006)
AUGUST 2007
– Michael Kelley, Blake Fontenay
“Strong local editorials. Nice job on
creating a lively page.”
2. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Hoyt
Canady, Jack McElroy, Jan Maxwell
Avent
3. Bristol Herald Courier – Andrea
Hopkins
4. The Tennessean, Nashville – Mike
Morrow, Ted Rayburn
1. Memphis Business Journal, “Time
to muzzle”
“Very strong, well-explained editorial.”
FROM PAGE 12
5. The Newport Plain Talk – Duay
O’Neil, Jim Hekel, Steve Blanchett,
Seth Butler
– Don Wade, “A call to arms”
“A lot of factors lead to this entry being
selected as the winner, but the writing
was clearly the best of all entries. The
narrative style brought these stories
to life, and especially was effective in
the crime series. Reporting was both
inspired and enterprising. Top-notch.”
2. The Tennessean, Nashville – Anita
Wadhwani
3. Bristol Herald Courier – Kathy Still
4. The Jackson Sun
– Christine Cook, Dave Flessner
“Good use of individuals to build issue
stories around. Also, good breadth to
your coverage. This entry was far and
away the best, both in scope of coverage
and quality of writing.”
3. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Ericka
Mellon
4. Bristol Herald Courier – Jennifer
Wig, Zach Fox, Debra McCown
BEST EDUCATION REPORTING
1. The Milan Mirror-Exchange – Steve
Short.
“Investigated teacher, dress code
– great coverage, well written stories. Someone obviously does their
homework. Nice coverage of school
system – shows newspaper is a sure
watchdog.”
John Latham
– Ed Cahill, Jessie Ellefson
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING
1. Weakley County Press, Martin,
“Eminent domain”
“I feel the newspaper’s role in bringing
the issue to the forefront had a direct
impact on the outcome – good job.
However, this is more straight news
than investigative reporting.”
– Ed Cahill
5. The Milan Mirror-Exchange
AWARDS
BEST SINGLE EDITORIAL
– “Wasting our money & influence”
“This well-written editorial explains
why readers should care about a somewhat arcane primary system and gives
specific, reasonable, recommendations
to address the problem.”
Mitchell
– John L. Kiener
CURT HABRAKEN | THE MOUNTAIN PRESS, SEVIERVILLE
Virginia Jacobs’ eyes tear up as she listens to her husband,
Gary, play his harmonica during a visit to Wellington
Place. (Oct. 11, 2006)
Habraken
First place award
Best feature photo
Group III - Dailies
The Mountain Press, Sevierville
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 9
1. Memphis Business Journal – Michael Sheffield.
“Good, informative in-depth coverage
with lean writing. While the numbers
of entries – only 3 – left me wanting to
read more, it was the good, solid, wellresearched, informative and relevant
reporting and writing that won this paper
a 1st place. Good work.”
– Steve Marion, Gayle Page
3. The Wilson Post, Lebanon – Sam
Hatcher, Zack Owensby, Jennifer
Horton
5. Hickman County Times, Centerville
First place award
Best feature photo
Group IV - Dailies
Greeson
KATHLEEN GREESON | CHATTANOOGA TIMES FREE PRESS
Karen Krug, 49, is disabled and retired early from her
nursing career because of a severe skin condition. She
has received multiple skin grafts over the past 13 years,
but since losing her TennCare coverage she no longer can
afford them. (Aug. 20, 2006)
The Tennessee Press
AUGUST 2007
1. The Daily Herald, Columbia – Skyler
Swisher, Nancy Glasscock, Chris
Fletcher, Thomas Munro, D. Frank
Smith.
“A nice variety of stories that show
the bright side of the schools but
don’t ignore the very substantive
issues confronting them.”
3. The Lebanon Democrat – Laurie
Everett
– Amy Ritchart, Melissa Tyndall, Nate
Karlin, Chris Smith
1. Memphis Business Journal – Michael Sheffield, “Playoffs – not profits”
“You didn’t have to be a sports fan to
appreciate the in-depth examination of
the Memphis Grizzlies’ financial issues.
The Journal methodically explored the
market, the team and the owner’s goals
in a series that should have been most
reading for anyone with an interest in
business in Memphis.”
2. Hickman CountyTimes, Centerville
– Bradley A. Martin
3. News-Herald, Lenoir City – Becky
Blanton
4. The Wilson Post, Lebanon – Jennifer Horton
5. The Courier, Savannah – Ron
Schaming
– Amy Ritchart,Thomya Hogan, Melissa
Tyndall, “Buses unload”
“Great project! Makes registered
sex offender list much more relevant
to readers, provides info they need &
want to know.”
2. The Daily Times, Maryville – Rick
Laney
3. The Lebanon Democrat – Jason
Cox
5. The Daily News, Memphis – Andy
Meek
Awards - 13
BSP 2
TOMMY BRYAN | THE WILSON POST, LEBANON
Senior Wade Mitchell holds the silver trophy during closing ceremonies of the 2006 BlueCross Bowl at MTSU’s
Floyd Stadium. Jackson Christian defeated Friendship
19-13, ending a 14-game winning streak for the Commanders, who were ranked No. 1 in Class 1A most of
the season. (Dec. 5, 2006)
Bryan
“Lewd, nude”
First place award
Best sports photo
The Wilson Post, Lebanon
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
8 - Awards
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 14
50 ‘something’
BY DEBBIE CASH
Herald & Tribune, Jonesborough
A 40-something
friend of mine
called me at work
recently bubbling
with excitement because she’d bought
a house that morning. She wanted
me to stop by on
Cash
the way home from
the newspaper and check our her new
digs.
The purchase was a spur of the moment one, made because she hated renting—felt as if she were throwing money
away. Since she ordinarily agonizes over
even minor decisions, this was totally
out of character.
Her new home is located on the old
Jonesborough highway and was built
during those years when every home
had a distinct personality. When my
husband, grandbaby and I stopped by
that afternoon, we could find only good
things to say; the house has charm,
big rooms, a fireplace and plenty of
wonderful storage, a huge yard and
some great little extras like knotty
pine kitchen cabinets, hardwood floors,
First place award
wide mouldings, a big basement with
a workshop and, maybe best of all,
no close neighbors except those of a
bovine nature.
We walked the property and returned
to the house. While everyone else was
distracted, I gagged on my partial. Now
this isn’t too unusual. I have a gag reflect
that would make the worst bulimic
proud, and while getting accustomed
to this piece of dental wizardry I’ve
gotten amazingly adept at slipping it
out and stashing it in my bra until the
urge passes.
We congratulated my friend on her
wise purchase, climbed in the car and
started home. We decided when we hit
Market St. that we needed to stop at the
bread store. I ran in, shopped pretty fast
and returned to the car. When I reached
into the back seat to give the baby a
snack to tide him over until we could
get supper cooked, I clutched my chest
and moaned. My husband slammed the
car back into park and asked if I was in
pain. “No,” I replied in my horror. “My
teeth are gone!”
In a mild panic, I ran back into the
bread store and tried to unobtrusively
retrace my steps. Skimmed the donut
aisle, the Ho-Ho aisle and dug through
the rye bread and croutons. I bent over
and pretended to tie my shoe while I
checked out the floor. Eyeballing the other customers, I imagined them reaching
to pick up hot dog buns and coming up
instead with my lost teeth. One guy had
his preschool-aged daughter with him.
Can you imagine the trauma discovering my teeth would have caused? The
poor child would have grown up with
nightmares of biting burger buns and
afraid of SaraLee.
I ran back out to the car feeling like
a big dummy. “The only place they
could possibly be,” I explained to my
husband as he valiantly tried to keep
from laughing, “is in the yard we just
left. I remember sticking them in my
bra. They had to have slipped out!”
(Don’t tell me you’ve never stashed
something in “the vault!”)
Now this, while being possible, was
highly improbable. For many years
I’ve been blessed with enough cleavage
to store small objects in my Minimizer.
That comes in handy whey you’re fish-
ing and don’t have a pocket for your
license or when you’re at a funeral or
sad movie and know you’ll need extra
Kleenex. My mom kept a little hankie
there so she could spit-clean us if she
found dirt we missed. If the partial had
fallen out—could it be true?—that had
to mean I’d lost some weight.
And that’s the sad part of being 50something. Everything begins to sink
slowly in the sunset. To see my “boozums” now, I have to reach under my
arm and get them. About two years ago
I woke up one morning having decided
that I kind of like the skin I’m in and to
end my life-long diet while concentrating on just getting a little healthier.
At that moment I heard my guardian
angels singing the Hallelujah chorus.
So, naturally, having climbed out of
the dieting rut, I began to lose weight.
And you know the first place you lose
weight—right where you don’t want
to—you guessed it. The boobs!
We made it back to my friend’s new
home, and there, smiling pinkly at me,
lay my partial. We hadn’t run over it.
No beast had taken off with it. I was
very lucky. And very happy to find those
teeth. They’re store-bought, you see, and
they aren’t paid for yet!
(March 21, 2006)
AUGUST 2007
Sound of silence: MSO musicians should have confronted racially offensive comments
CMYK
BY WENDI C. THOMAS
Memphis Symphony Orchestra
associate conductor
Vincent Danner had
begun to wear his
hair in dreadlocks
when he came to a
September rehearsal. A musician saw
Thomas
him and joked out
of Danner’s earshot, “Oh look, there’s
Buckwheat!”
That same evening, Danner was
shocked when another musician told
him he looked like a golliwog doll, a
19th century pitch-black caricature of
a minstrel, with mounds of unkempt
hair, bulging white eyes and protruding red lips.
Two weeks later, yet another musician
assumed he’d like to hear a Buckwheat
joke just before rehearsal, much to
Danner’s disgust.
But just as painful was this: None
of the orchestra members who heard
these racially disparaging comments
confronted the offenders.
His colleagues stood by, like many do
in such moments, offended but unable to
insist upon an environment tolerant of
differences, particularly those outside
the Caucasian norm.
“Nobody else complained about it.
That’s what bothers me. Nobody else
complained,” said Danner.
Not even whe the musician who had
compared Danner’s hair to that of the
chief pickaninny on the 1920s “The
First place award
Group IV - Dailies
Little Rascals” films struck again. At
the same September rehearsal, he said,
“This is still the South,” when a scarf,
used as a prop by a dancer performing with the symphony, hung behind
Danner’s podium at a rehearsal—a
comment that was perceived by both a
listener and an MSO administrator as
a reference to a noose.
So Danner, who was told later by
others about the scarf comment, took
his concerns to Ryan Fleur, MSO’s
president and chief executive officer.
“What does it say about who and what
we are when individuals in our midst
feel completely comfortable in making
such comments?” Danner wrote in an
Oct. 6 letter.
Fleur’s initial response was swift. “We
are an open and affirming organization,
and have no tolerance for individuals
who are not open and affirming,” Fleur
wrote in an e-mail to Danner sent that
same day.
That zero-tolerance should certainly
extend to the cultural arrogance that
makes a non-European hairstyle fair
game for public ridicule or references to
minstrel dolls and strange fruit imaginable, much less speakable.
But only this month did the MSO
complete its investigation of Danner’s
complaint, which it hasn’t shared wth
Danner. It has yet to craft a policy state-
AWARDS
– Wendi C. Thomas
Wellborn
5. LaFollette Press – Jim Dossett
BEST SPOT NEWS STORY
1. The Erwin Record – Mark A. Stevens, Brenda Sparks, “Erwin man pulls
girl from car”
“Outstanding first hand account. Well
written & good use of quotes!”
2. Mt. Juliet News – Brooks Franklin
3. The Middle Tennessee Times,
Smithville – Chris Tramel
Wainger
FROM PAGE 9
– David Critchlow Jr., Mike Hutchens,
“5-letter”
“Good story-telling. Light touch.
Engages audience.”
2.The Oak Ridger, Oak Ridge – Richard
Esposito
– Derek Hodges
1. The Commercial Appeal, Memphis – Geoff Calkins, “Flavor of the
games?”
“Looked forward to next paragraph.
Entertaining and unique.”
– Mark Kennedy
Blanton, “LCHS grad killed in Iraq”
“Wow. Great job of putting reader in
parents’ shoes. It runs a bit long. Could
be shorter.”
– Brandon Puttbrese
– Duane Sherrill, Charlie Johnson
ment barring such conduct as suggested
by the Tennessee Arts Commission in
an Oct. 27 letter to the symphony.
“Comments like those…would certainly affect your ability to provide
access to the arts and to attract diverse
musicians and audience,” wrote Lisa
Hester, the commission’s Arts Access
program director. The symphony’s
funding could be in jeopardy if it fails
to complywith federal anti-discrimination rules.
The symphony, Fleur explained,
wants to put some distance between any
new policies and the stern warnings
given the three white symphony members who admitted that they did make
the comments. One of the offenders, a
woman who also had been reprimanded
for sexually inappropriate comments
she made two years ago, had to pay half
of the cost for mandatory sensitivity
training for herself.
Fleur came to Memphis four years
ago from Cambridge, Mass., where,
if a similar situation had occurred,
“colleagues in the near vicinity would
step up and say something right
away.” That didn’t happen here, and it
frustrates him.
“I can get up in front of the orchestra
and say, ‘Look, guys, you shouldn’t do
this,’ or say, ‘When this happens, you
should stand up and say something,’ but
that doesn’t get to the heart of where
Vince’s disappointment is.”
The real question, Fleur said, one that
can’t be fixed by official policies, is this:
“Who’s going to have the courage to
stand up and say something?”
And, he added, he understands why
Danner didn’t immediately confront the
musician who told Danner he looked
like a golliwog doll just minutes before
he was to lead a rehearsal.
“What could his possible retort be,
in the moment?” Fleur asked. “This is
somebody who then has to turn around
and walk up on the podium, raise his
arms and expect 60 people to respet
and make music with him. If I were in
Vince’s shoes, I would respond exactly
the same way.”
Figuring out the appropriate reaction
to comic Michael Richards’ self-induction into the racial hall of infamy is
easy.
It’s trickier to respond to offhand,
off-color snubs when the speaker may
be a lout but not malicious.
Not-funny jokes that poke fun at immutable characteristics like race or
gender or sexual orientation are not
uncommon. And it’s not uncommon
for the most tolerant person to be
rendered mute by the shock, or even
laugh nervously.
Later, the perfect retort surfaces, but
the moment has passed. To seek out
the offender and raise the matter again
seems, well, hypersensitive.
Afraid of the confrontation that might
follow, we do nothing, even though we
know our silence may be interpreted as
tacit agreement.
Those who made the offensive comments should be ashamed, but so
should those who heard the comments
but said nothing. And because so many
people share culpability, none will be
named here.
Times like these call not for bystand-
ers, but upstanders, those who have the
courage to confront offensive behavior
in the moment.
If he’d overheard the comments, Fleur
says he would have told the offender,
“Listen, that’s not cool. Do you realize
what you said?”
“I would also go up to Vince and say,
‘Look. I heard those comments and that’s
not appropriate. What do you need from
me? How can I best support you?”
It’s as simple as that. No need for a
dissertation on the racial implications
of Buckwheat and golliwog dolls. Just a
few words of disapproval to the speaker,
followed by a show of support to the
person hurt.
Last week at a rehearsal, the musician
who made two of the comments apologized to Danner and the orchestra.
“I appreciate the fact that he did come
to me after all these weeks, (but) it didn’t
seem to be an apology for what he said,”
said Danner, 40. “It was an apology
because he got caught.”
More than a year ago, Danner, who
also conducts the Memphis Youth Symphony, announced he was leaving the
MSO for a teaching position at his alma
mater, Oberlin College Conservatory of
Music. Danner had planned a quiet end
to his 12 years with the orchestra until
“this was thrown in my lap.”
He hopes that the symphony, which
has only three African-American musicians, can use this to transform itself
into an inclusive organization prepared
to serve a diverse community.
“I truly did all this to make it better
for the next (black) person who comes
along, because it’s too late for me.”
(Dec. 10, 2006)
Owensby
Daniel Connolly
– Halimah Abdullah, Cindy Wolff, Zack
McMillan, Jody Callahan
4. The Jackson Sun – Andrew Tran,
Wendy Isom
5.The Jackson Sun –TyroneTony Reed
Jr., Pete Wickham, Tajuana Cheshier,
Kim Thomas
Carpenter, Robin Kervin, Jim Ashley
– Steve Marion
1. The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro, “Smyrna tot missing”
“You covered all the bases – the basic
news story, details on the search, background information on the toddler, and
safety tips for parents. Good work!”
3.The Daily Herald, Columbia – Skyler
Swisher, John Henson
Melson
– Ryan Harris
1. The Tennessean, Nashville, “deadly
winds”
“Thorough coverage of a breakingnews story that required quick but
thoughtful decisions – and execution
– of a disaster for which there is little
warning. Excellent work by a smart
team!”
–Tom Charlier, Dakarai Aarons, Michael
Erskine, Lawrence Buser, Amos Maki,
BEST NEWS REPORTING
1. Carroll County News-Leader, Huntingdon – Shirley Nanney, Ron Park, John
Latham, “Mary Winkler”
“This reporter has done an excellent
job staying with the story.”
1. The News Examiner, Gallatin,
“Mayor allows ‘Thong Girl 3’”
“Reporter did a great job with this
story. Writing could have benefited from
some shorter sentences, but all in all she
did a nice job of digging out the story
and following its developments.”
1. The Daily Herald, Columbia – D.
Frank Smith, Skyler Swisher, Chris
Fletcher, John Henson, “Suspect dies
after arrest”
“Piece talking to father & other experts
was by far the best – really shined a light
on victim’s life.”
2. The Daily Times, Maryville – Anna
C. Irwin, Iva Butler
– Ryan Harris
4. The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro – Mealand Ragland-Hudgins, John
Gillis, Karen Kraft
– Jeff Farrell
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 13
The Tennessee Press
AUGUST 2007
Creating an ethical dilemma—again
AWARDS
FROM PAGE 8
Brewer
– James Clark
Swisher
Fletcher
3. Citizen Tribune, Morristown – John
Gullion, Stan Johnson
4. The Lebanon Democrat – Clint
Brewer
– Stan Voit
Hopkins, “The jungle”
“This should be used in textbooks
as a quintessential example of a great
editorial. Vivid, descriptive writing;
concise explanation of the problem &
its effect on readers; clear, reasonable
recommendations on how to tackle it.
Perfect!”
2. Kingsport Times-News
– Harry Austin
– Michael Kelley
BEST PERSONAL COLUMN
1.The Cordova Beacon, “Reaching the
I & me generation”
“This was clearly above the others
& stood out as a winner early on. The
writing flowed perfectly and I felt as
though I were right there with the author.
Easily 1st place.”
– Jessie Ellefson
4. The Erwin Record – Ray Knapp
Wellborn, “Tent comes down”
“This slice of life offers a unique view of
something most folks normally wouldn’t
care about at all.”
2. The Tullahoma News – Weldon
Payne
3. Manchester Times
5. LaFollette Press – Jason Davis
1. The Oak Ridger, Oak Ridge, “Creating an ethical dilemma”
“Good strong writing, powerful documentation and impact.”
2. Herald-Citizen, Cookeville – Wes
Swietek
3. Shelbyville Times-Gazette – Kay
Rose
Awards - 9
BY DARRELL RICHARDSON
Editor, The Oak Ridger, Oak Ridge
Faster than you
can say, “sour milk,”
it looks like the Anderson County Commission and County
Mayor Rex Lynch
are headed for
another ethically
slippery slope—at
Richardson
break-neck speed.
It was only a year ago that commissioners found themselves in the middle
of a well-publicized controversy involving the milk contract for the Anderson
County school system.
On July 14, 2005, the Anderson County
Board of Education voted to recommend that Flavorich, the lowest bidder
among the three companies, be awarded
a contract to provide milk and other
4. The Paris Post-Intelligencer – Ken
Walker
5.The Daily News, Memphis – Lindsay
Jones
1. The Commercial Appeal, Memphis – Wendi C. Thomas, “Sound of
silence”
“The writer is appalled, and so am I.
Wendi conveys the gravity of the situation without resorting to preaching.
There was no need to get on the soap
box – the facts of the situation presented
here spoke loudly.”
– David Magee
3. The Jackson Sun – Bob Heist
Hopkins
– Chris Peck
BEST PERSONAL HUMOR
COLUMN
– Debbie Cash, “Lost partial”
“Well told. Truth is funnier than fiction.”
2. Lewis County Herald, Hohenwald
– Helen Ozier
5. The Erwin Record – Ben Doty
First place award
Group III - Dailies
The Oak Ridger, Oak Ridge
dairy products to the county schools.
Later that month, a meeting was reportedly held among School Board member
Daily Cantrell, County Mayor Rex
Lynch, County Purchasing Agent Pam
Cotham and Anderson County Director
of Schools V.L. Stonecipher. During that
meeting, Lynch and Cotham, along with
Cantrell, who had voted July 14 in favor
of Mayfield getting the milk contract,
advocated going with Mayfield because
many students had told them they didn’t
like the Flavorich milk.
Despite the School Board’s earlier
Flavorich vote, Cotham awarded the bid
on July 28, 2005 to Mayfield, the highest
bidder, and the controversy kicked into
high gear.
A Tennessee Department of Education official sent a letter stating that
only with a few exceptions can a milk
contract be awarded to anyone but the
lowest bidder. And, furthermore, the
state indicated that if the contract
wasn’t awarded to the lowest bidder, the
county schools could be in jeopardy of
losing federal funding which pays for
the milk and many other programs.
Ultimately, the school system could
have lost an amount up to $275,000 for
the year, according to county and state
officials. All because of the personal,
ahem, taste of two or three county
officials who did not want to play by
the rules.
What a wonderful message this sends
to our young people.
Though an agreement was finally
reached about three months later
between Flavorich and Mayfield that
would switch the county schools’
milk contract from Mayfield back to
Flavorich, County Attorney David
Clark noted that Flavorich officials
wouldn’t sign a document releasing
Anderson County from any liability
1. The Herald-News, Dayton – Rachel
Evans, “What the world needs now”
“Very clever & amusing. Love the
tongue in cheek style. Nice imagery of
the Japanese prime minister! Made me
laugh out loud.”
Brewer
on the matter.
All’s well that ends well, and The
Oak Ridger certainly didn’t hear any
complaints from school children about
the taste of their milk throughout the
school year.
So, you would think there’s no use crying over spilled milk, right? Wrong!
This week, the County Commission
seemed determined not to learn any
lessons from an immediate past—and
the county mayor put in his two cents’
worth as well.
This time, instead of who would be delivering our kids their milk, it’s who will
be building a $3 million-plus expansion
to our county jail. You know, the place
where we put inmates who often are just
looking for an opportunity to sue.
Well, the inmates may have to stand
in line if the county follows through
with plans to once again not award a
taxpayer-funded project to the lowest
bidder. And, ultimately, commissioners seem to be letting the defense rest
with County Purchasing Agent Pam
Cotham—the same purchasing agent
who caused such an uproar this time
last year.
During their quarterly daytime
meeting Monday, County Commission
members discussed whether to choose
Brentwood-based Bell & Associates or
Evans Contracting of Clinton for the
county’s jail expansion project. Bell &
Associates bid $3.236 million on the project, while Evans bid $3.25 million. With
contingency, architectural/engineering
fees and other miscellaneous costs
added, project architect Grant Tharp
said the total project will be between
$3.43 million and $3.528 million, depending on which bidder is chosen.
Despite County Attorney Clark noting
that the request for proposals indicated
the jail project would be awarded to the
lowest bidder rather than the “usual
practice” of awarding to the “lowest
and best” bidder, the county mayo
and commission members dared to go
where angels fear to tread—with your
tax dollars.
Though Commissioners Harold
First place award
Best sports photo
The Millington Star
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 12
Lewter
Jernigan and Jerry Creasey indicated
they would like to adhere to no only
the letter of the law, but also the spirit
of the law, fellow commissioners and
County Mayor Rex Lunch aren’t so
inclined. Commissioner Chuck Fritts
said he liked projects to be awarded
to local firms, while Commissioners
Rickey Rose and Kathy Moore pointed
out what a good job Evans has done
on past projects and how picking local
firms provides jobs for local workers.
And the county mayor said he would like
to see the County Commission recommend Evans for the project, too.
But, in the end, County Commission
decided to pass the buck—again. The
commissioners approved a motion by
Mike Cox to refer the awarding of the
contract to Cotham. Of course, to be
fair to County Commission, discussion about awarding the project to
Evans rather than Bell & Associates
was referred to county commissioners
by the county’s jail subcommittee and
its Operations Committee, which also
washed their hands of the issue.
Who will finally get the bid—and
when—is still up in the air, though the
outcome of these political shenanigans
looks pretty clear.
I guess if there is any bright side to
this lesson in political ethics/expediency it is that at least the public was
allowed to watch this sausage being
made. If County Commissioner Kathy
Moore had her way, discussion would
have been closed to the public. However,
when Moore asked if the Commission
could meet in “executive session” with
the county attorney to get advice on the
matter, Clark pointed out commissioners couldn’t meet in private since there
is no pending or threatened lawsuit
involved.
Give it time, though. If the jail and
milk issues handled by our county leaders are any indication, we’ll be looking
at lawsuits in no time.
Then, Commissioner Kathy Moore
and others can have their wish to really
keep the public out of the equation.
(July 19, 2006)
KEVIN LEWTER | THE MILLINGTON STAR
LSUE Bengal first baseman Leonard Porche falls down and
still tries to make a play at first during the championship
game against GRCC. Porsche and his LSUE teammates
swept both championship games, to win the school’s first
national title. (June 7, 2006)
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
12 - Awards
10 - Awards
The Tennessee Press
AUGUST 2007
The Tennessee Press
AUGUST 2007
Awards - 11
GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARDS - FRONT PAGES
SECOND PLACE WINNERS - UT-TPA STATE PRESS CONTESTS
Staff members of newspapers winning second place awards are (from left): Front row, Lesley Hughes and Anthony D. Piercy, The Erwin Record; Danny Wade, The Humboldt Chronicle;
Kim Cook, The Standard Banner, Jefferson City; Lisa Tramel, The Middle Tennessee Times, Smithville; Richard Esposito, The Oak Ridger, Oak Ridge; Ron Bridgeman, The Courier News,
Clinton. Back row, Kathryne Belle, Macon County Chronicle, Lafayette; Andrea Hopkins, Bristol Herald Courier; Gwen Matheny, The Leader, Covington; Laurie Everett, Mt. Juliet News;
Jamia Blazer, The Mountain Press, Sevierville; Randy Mackin, Buffalo River Revew, Linden; Ron Park and Shirley Nanney, Carroll County News-Leader, Huntingdon; and Charlie Johnson,
Southern Standard, McMinnville.
THE STANDARD BANNER, Jefferson City
THE DAILY HERALD, Columbia
Group III - Dailies
THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL, Memphis
Group IV - Dailies
CMYK
CMYK
THE ERWIN RECORD
MAKE-UP AND APPEARANCE AWARDS - FRONT PAGES
THIRD PLACE WINNERS - UT-TPA STATE PRESS CONTESTS
From left, front row, Greg Menza, The Daily Herald, Columbia; Lesley Hughes and Anthony D. Piercy, The Erwin Record; Danny Wade, The Humboldt Chronicle; Kim Cook, The Standard
Banner, Jefferson City; Zack Owensby, The Wilson Post, Lebanon; and Chris Tramel, The Middle Tennessee Times, Smithville; back row, Marion Wilhoite and Marvine Sugg, The Daily Herald,
Columbia; David Harrison, The Westmoreland Observer; Kathryne Belle, Macon County Chronicle, Lafayette; Andrea Hopkins, Bristol Herald Courier; Laurie Everett, Mt. Juliet News; Ron
Park and Shirley Nanney, Carroll County News-Leader, Huntingdon; and Charlie Johnson, Southern Standard, McMinnville.
THE COURIER NEWS, Clinton
Left, UT’s Charles Primm announces State Press Contests winners. Middle, newspaper staff members watch and listen. Right, Amy Blakely, UT, handles PowerPoint duties.
THE DAILY NEWS JOURNAL, Murfreesboro
Group III - Dailies
Group IV - Dailies
10 - Awards
The Tennessee Press
AUGUST 2007
The Tennessee Press
AUGUST 2007
Awards - 11
GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARDS - FRONT PAGES
SECOND PLACE WINNERS - UT-TPA STATE PRESS CONTESTS
Staff members of newspapers winning second place awards are (from left): Front row, Lesley Hughes and Anthony D. Piercy, The Erwin Record; Danny Wade, The Humboldt Chronicle;
Kim Cook, The Standard Banner, Jefferson City; Lisa Tramel, The Middle Tennessee Times, Smithville; Richard Esposito, The Oak Ridger, Oak Ridge; Ron Bridgeman, The Courier News,
Clinton. Back row, Kathryne Belle, Macon County Chronicle, Lafayette; Andrea Hopkins, Bristol Herald Courier; Gwen Matheny, The Leader, Covington; Laurie Everett, Mt. Juliet News;
Jamia Blazer, The Mountain Press, Sevierville; Randy Mackin, Buffalo River Revew, Linden; Ron Park and Shirley Nanney, Carroll County News-Leader, Huntingdon; and Charlie Johnson,
Southern Standard, McMinnville.
THE DAILY HERALD, Columbia
Group III - Dailies
Group IV - Dailies
CMYK
CMYK
THE ERWIN RECORD
MAKE-UP AND APPEARANCE AWARDS - FRONT PAGES
THIRD PLACE WINNERS - UT-TPA STATE PRESS CONTESTS
From left, front row, Greg Menza, The Daily Herald, Columbia; Lesley Hughes and Anthony D. Piercy, The Erwin Record; Danny Wade, The Humboldt Chronicle; Kim Cook, The Standard
Banner, Jefferson City; Zack Owensby, The Wilson Post, Lebanon; and Chris Tramel, The Middle Tennessee Times, Smithville; back row, Marion Wilhoite and Marvine Sugg, The Daily Herald,
Columbia; David Harrison, The Westmoreland Observer; Kathryne Belle, Macon County Chronicle, Lafayette; Andrea Hopkins, Bristol Herald Courier; Laurie Everett, Mt. Juliet News; Ron
Park and Shirley Nanney, Carroll County News-Leader, Huntingdon; and Charlie Johnson, Southern Standard, McMinnville.
THE COURIER NEWS, Clinton
Left, UT’s Charles Primm announces State Press Contests winners. Middle, newspaper staff members watch and listen. Right, Amy Blakely, UT, handles PowerPoint duties.
THE DAILY NEWS JOURNAL, Murfreesboro
Group III - Dailies
Group IV - Dailies
AUGUST 2007
Sound of silence: MSO musicians should have confronted racially offensive comments
CMYK
BY WENDI C. THOMAS
Memphis Symphony Orchestra
associate conductor
Vincent Danner had
begun to wear his
hair in dreadlocks
when he came to a
September rehearsal. A musician saw
Thomas
him and joked out
of Danner’s earshot, “Oh look, there’s
Buckwheat!”
That same evening, Danner was
shocked when another musician told
him he looked like a golliwog doll, a
19th century pitch-black caricature of
a minstrel, with mounds of unkempt
hair, bulging white eyes and protruding red lips.
Two weeks later, yet another musician
assumed he’d like to hear a Buckwheat
joke just before rehearsal, much to
Danner’s disgust.
But just as painful was this: None
of the orchestra members who heard
these racially disparaging comments
confronted the offenders.
His colleagues stood by, like many do
in such moments, offended but unable to
insist upon an environment tolerant of
differences, particularly those outside
the Caucasian norm.
“Nobody else complained about it.
That’s what bothers me. Nobody else
complained,” said Danner.
Not even whe the musician who had
compared Danner’s hair to that of the
chief pickaninny on the 1920s “The
First place award
Group IV - Dailies
Little Rascals” films struck again. At
the same September rehearsal, he said,
“This is still the South,” when a scarf,
used as a prop by a dancer performing with the symphony, hung behind
Danner’s podium at a rehearsal—a
comment that was perceived by both a
listener and an MSO administrator as
a reference to a noose.
So Danner, who was told later by
others about the scarf comment, took
his concerns to Ryan Fleur, MSO’s
president and chief executive officer.
“What does it say about who and what
we are when individuals in our midst
feel completely comfortable in making
such comments?” Danner wrote in an
Oct. 6 letter.
Fleur’s initial response was swift. “We
are an open and affirming organization,
and have no tolerance for individuals
who are not open and affirming,” Fleur
wrote in an e-mail to Danner sent that
same day.
That zero-tolerance should certainly
extend to the cultural arrogance that
makes a non-European hairstyle fair
game for public ridicule or references to
minstrel dolls and strange fruit imaginable, much less speakable.
But only this month did the MSO
complete its investigation of Danner’s
complaint, which it hasn’t shared wth
Danner. It has yet to craft a policy state-
AWARDS
– Wendi C. Thomas
Wellborn
5. LaFollette Press – Jim Dossett
BEST SPOT NEWS STORY
1. The Erwin Record – Mark A. Stevens, Brenda Sparks, “Erwin man pulls
girl from car”
“Outstanding first hand account. Well
written & good use of quotes!”
2. Mt. Juliet News – Brooks Franklin
Wainger
FROM PAGE 9
– David Critchlow Jr., Mike Hutchens,
“5-letter”
“Good story-telling. Light touch.
Engages audience.”
2.The Oak Ridger, Oak Ridge – Richard
Esposito
– Derek Hodges
1. The Commercial Appeal, Memphis – Geoff Calkins, “Flavor of the
games?”
“Looked forward to next paragraph.
Entertaining and unique.”
– Mark Kennedy
Blanton, “LCHS grad killed in Iraq”
“Wow. Great job of putting reader in
parents’ shoes. It runs a bit long. Could
be shorter.”
– Brandon Puttbrese
– Duane Sherrill, Charlie Johnson
ment barring such conduct as suggested
by the Tennessee Arts Commission in
an Oct. 27 letter to the symphony.
“Comments like those…would certainly affect your ability to provide
access to the arts and to attract diverse
musicians and audience,” wrote Lisa
Hester, the commission’s Arts Access
program director. The symphony’s
funding could be in jeopardy if it fails
to complywith federal anti-discrimination rules.
The symphony, Fleur explained,
wants to put some distance between any
new policies and the stern warnings
given the three white symphony members who admitted that they did make
the comments. One of the offenders, a
woman who also had been reprimanded
for sexually inappropriate comments
she made two years ago, had to pay half
of the cost for mandatory sensitivity
training for herself.
Fleur came to Memphis four years
ago from Cambridge, Mass., where,
if a similar situation had occurred,
“colleagues in the near vicinity would
step up and say something right
away.” That didn’t happen here, and it
frustrates him.
“I can get up in front of the orchestra
and say, ‘Look, guys, you shouldn’t do
this,’ or say, ‘When this happens, you
should stand up and say something,’ but
that doesn’t get to the heart of where
Vince’s disappointment is.”
The real question, Fleur said, one that
can’t be fixed by official policies, is this:
“Who’s going to have the courage to
stand up and say something?”
And, he added, he understands why
Danner didn’t immediately confront the
musician who told Danner he looked
like a golliwog doll just minutes before
he was to lead a rehearsal.
“What could his possible retort be,
in the moment?” Fleur asked. “This is
somebody who then has to turn around
and walk up on the podium, raise his
arms and expect 60 people to respet
and make music with him. If I were in
Vince’s shoes, I would respond exactly
the same way.”
Figuring out the appropriate reaction
to comic Michael Richards’ self-induction into the racial hall of infamy is
easy.
It’s trickier to respond to offhand,
off-color snubs when the speaker may
be a lout but not malicious.
Not-funny jokes that poke fun at immutable characteristics like race or
gender or sexual orientation are not
uncommon. And it’s not uncommon
for the most tolerant person to be
rendered mute by the shock, or even
laugh nervously.
Later, the perfect retort surfaces, but
the moment has passed. To seek out
the offender and raise the matter again
seems, well, hypersensitive.
Afraid of the confrontation that might
follow, we do nothing, even though we
know our silence may be interpreted as
tacit agreement.
Those who made the offensive comments should be ashamed, but so
should those who heard the comments
but said nothing. And because so many
people share culpability, none will be
named here.
Times like these call not for bystand-
ers, but upstanders, those who have the
courage to confront offensive behavior
in the moment.
If he’d overheard the comments, Fleur
says he would have told the offender,
“Listen, that’s not cool. Do you realize
what you said?”
“I would also go up to Vince and say,
‘Look. I heard those comments and that’s
not appropriate. What do you need from
me? How can I best support you?”
It’s as simple as that. No need for a
dissertation on the racial implications
of Buckwheat and golliwog dolls. Just a
few words of disapproval to the speaker,
followed by a show of support to the
person hurt.
Last week at a rehearsal, the musician
who made two of the comments apologized to Danner and the orchestra.
“I appreciate the fact that he did come
to me after all these weeks, (but) it didn’t
seem to be an apology for what he said,”
said Danner, 40. “It was an apology
because he got caught.”
More than a year ago, Danner, who
also conducts the Memphis Youth Symphony, announced he was leaving the
MSO for a teaching position at his alma
mater, Oberlin College Conservatory of
Music. Danner had planned a quiet end
to his 12 years with the orchestra until
“this was thrown in my lap.”
He hopes that the symphony, which
has only three African-American musicians, can use this to transform itself
into an inclusive organization prepared
to serve a diverse community.
“I truly did all this to make it better
for the next (black) person who comes
along, because it’s too late for me.”
(Dec. 10, 2006)
Owensby
Daniel Connolly
– Halimah Abdullah, Cindy Wolff, Zack
McMillan, Jody Callahan
4. The Jackson Sun – Andrew Tran,
Wendy Isom
5.The Jackson Sun –TyroneTony Reed
Jr., Pete Wickham, Tajuana Cheshier,
Kim Thomas
Carpenter, Robin Kervin, Jim Ashley
– Steve Marion
1. The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro, “Smyrna tot missing”
“You covered all the bases – the basic
news story, details on the search, background information on the toddler, and
safety tips for parents. Good work!”
3.The Daily Herald, Columbia – Skyler
Swisher, John Henson
Melson
– Ryan Harris
1. The Tennessean, Nashville, “deadly
winds”
“Thorough coverage of a breakingnews story that required quick but
thoughtful decisions – and execution
– of a disaster for which there is little
warning. Excellent work by a smart
team!”
–Tom Charlier, Dakarai Aarons, Michael
Erskine, Lawrence Buser, Amos Maki,
BEST NEWS REPORTING
1. Carroll County News-Leader, Huntingdon – Shirley Nanney, Ron Park, John
Latham, “Mary Winkler”
“This reporter has done an excellent
job staying with the story.”
1. The News Examiner, Gallatin,
“Mayor allows ‘Thong Girl 3’”
“Reporter did a great job with this
story. Writing could have benefited from
some shorter sentences, but all in all she
did a nice job of digging out the story
and following its developments.”
1. The Daily Herald, Columbia – D.
Frank Smith, Skyler Swisher, Chris
Fletcher, John Henson, “Suspect dies
after arrest”
“Piece talking to father & other experts
was by far the best – really shined a light
on victim’s life.”
2. The Daily Times, Maryville – Anna
C. Irwin, Iva Butler
– Ryan Harris
4. The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro – Mealand Ragland-Hudgins, John
Gillis, Karen Kraft
– Jeff Farrell
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 13
The Tennessee Press
AUGUST 2007
Creating an ethical dilemma—again
AWARDS
FROM PAGE 8
Brewer
– James Clark
Swisher
Fletcher
3. Citizen Tribune, Morristown – John
Gullion, Stan Johnson
4. The Lebanon Democrat – Clint
Brewer
– Stan Voit
Hopkins, “The jungle”
“This should be used in textbooks
as a quintessential example of a great
editorial. Vivid, descriptive writing;
concise explanation of the problem &
its effect on readers; clear, reasonable
recommendations on how to tackle it.
Perfect!”
2. Kingsport Times-News
– Harry Austin
– Michael Kelley
BEST PERSONAL COLUMN
1.The Cordova Beacon, “Reaching the
I & me generation”
“This was clearly above the others
& stood out as a winner early on. The
writing flowed perfectly and I felt as
though I were right there with the author.
Easily 1st place.”
– Jessie Ellefson
4. The Erwin Record – Ray Knapp
Wellborn, “Tent comes down”
“This slice of life offers a unique view of
something most folks normally wouldn’t
care about at all.”
2. The Tullahoma News – Weldon
Payne
3. Manchester Times
5. LaFollette Press – Jason Davis
1. The Oak Ridger, Oak Ridge, “Creating an ethical dilemma”
“Good strong writing, powerful documentation and impact.”
2. Herald-Citizen, Cookeville – Wes
Swietek
3. Shelbyville Times-Gazette – Kay
Rose
Awards - 9
BY DARRELL RICHARDSON
Editor, The Oak Ridger, Oak Ridge
Faster than you
can say, “sour milk,”
it looks like the Anderson County Commission and County
Mayor Rex Lynch
are headed for
another ethically
slippery slope—at
Richardson
break-neck speed.
It was only a year ago that commissioners found themselves in the middle
of a well-publicized controversy involving the milk contract for the Anderson
County school system.
On July 14, 2005, the Anderson County
Board of Education voted to recommend that Flavorich, the lowest bidder
among the three companies, be awarded
a contract to provide milk and other
4. The Paris Post-Intelligencer – Ken
Walker
5.The Daily News, Memphis – Lindsay
Jones
1. The Commercial Appeal, Memphis – Wendi C. Thomas, “Sound of
silence”
“The writer is appalled, and so am I.
Wendi conveys the gravity of the situation without resorting to preaching.
There was no need to get on the soap
box – the facts of the situation presented
here spoke loudly.”
– David Magee
3. The Jackson Sun – Bob Heist
Hopkins
– Chris Peck
BEST PERSONAL HUMOR
COLUMN
– Debbie Cash, “Lost partial”
“Well told. Truth is funnier than fiction.”
2. Lewis County Herald, Hohenwald
– Helen Ozier
5. The Erwin Record – Ben Doty
First place award
Group III - Dailies
The Oak Ridger, Oak Ridge
dairy products to the county schools.
Later that month, a meeting was reportedly held among School Board member
Daily Cantrell, County Mayor Rex
Lynch, County Purchasing Agent Pam
Cotham and Anderson County Director
of Schools V.L. Stonecipher. During that
meeting, Lynch and Cotham, along with
Cantrell, who had voted July 14 in favor
of Mayfield getting the milk contract,
advocated going with Mayfield because
many students had told them they didn’t
like the Flavorich milk.
Despite the School Board’s earlier
Flavorich vote, Cotham awarded the bid
on July 28, 2005 to Mayfield, the highest
bidder, and the controversy kicked into
high gear.
A Tennessee Department of Education official sent a letter stating that
only with a few exceptions can a milk
contract be awarded to anyone but the
lowest bidder. And, furthermore, the
state indicated that if the contract
wasn’t awarded to the lowest bidder, the
county schools could be in jeopardy of
losing federal funding which pays for
the milk and many other programs.
Ultimately, the school system could
have lost an amount up to $275,000 for
the year, according to county and state
officials. All because of the personal,
ahem, taste of two or three county
officials who did not want to play by
the rules.
What a wonderful message this sends
to our young people.
Though an agreement was finally
reached about three months later
between Flavorich and Mayfield that
would switch the county schools’
milk contract from Mayfield back to
Flavorich, County Attorney David
Clark noted that Flavorich officials
wouldn’t sign a document releasing
Anderson County from any liability
1. The Herald-News, Dayton – Rachel
Evans, “What the world needs now”
“Very clever & amusing. Love the
tongue in cheek style. Nice imagery of
the Japanese prime minister! Made me
laugh out loud.”
Brewer
on the matter.
All’s well that ends well, and The
Oak Ridger certainly didn’t hear any
complaints from school children about
the taste of their milk throughout the
school year.
So, you would think there’s no use crying over spilled milk, right? Wrong!
This week, the County Commission
seemed determined not to learn any
lessons from an immediate past—and
the county mayor put in his two cents’
worth as well.
This time, instead of who would be delivering our kids their milk, it’s who will
be building a $3 million-plus expansion
to our county jail. You know, the place
where we put inmates who often are just
looking for an opportunity to sue.
Well, the inmates may have to stand
in line if the county follows through
with plans to once again not award a
taxpayer-funded project to the lowest
bidder. And, ultimately, commissioners seem to be letting the defense rest
with County Purchasing Agent Pam
Cotham—the same purchasing agent
who caused such an uproar this time
last year.
During their quarterly daytime
meeting Monday, County Commission
members discussed whether to choose
Brentwood-based Bell & Associates or
Evans Contracting of Clinton for the
county’s jail expansion project. Bell &
Associates bid $3.236 million on the project, while Evans bid $3.25 million. With
contingency, architectural/engineering
fees and other miscellaneous costs
added, project architect Grant Tharp
said the total project will be between
$3.43 million and $3.528 million, depending on which bidder is chosen.
Despite County Attorney Clark noting
that the request for proposals indicated
the jail project would be awarded to the
lowest bidder rather than the “usual
practice” of awarding to the “lowest
and best” bidder, the county mayo
and commission members dared to go
where angels fear to tread—with your
tax dollars.
Though Commissioners Harold
First place award
Best sports photo
The Millington Star
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 12
Lewter
Jernigan and Jerry Creasey indicated
they would like to adhere to no only
the letter of the law, but also the spirit
of the law, fellow commissioners and
County Mayor Rex Lunch aren’t so
inclined. Commissioner Chuck Fritts
said he liked projects to be awarded
to local firms, while Commissioners
Rickey Rose and Kathy Moore pointed
out what a good job Evans has done
on past projects and how picking local
firms provides jobs for local workers.
And the county mayor said he would like
to see the County Commission recommend Evans for the project, too.
But, in the end, County Commission
decided to pass the buck—again. The
commissioners approved a motion by
Mike Cox to refer the awarding of the
contract to Cotham. Of course, to be
fair to County Commission, discussion about awarding the project to
Evans rather than Bell & Associates
was referred to county commissioners
by the county’s jail subcommittee and
its Operations Committee, which also
washed their hands of the issue.
Who will finally get the bid—and
when—is still up in the air, though the
outcome of these political shenanigans
looks pretty clear.
I guess if there is any bright side to
this lesson in political ethics/expediency it is that at least the public was
allowed to watch this sausage being
made. If County Commissioner Kathy
Moore had her way, discussion would
have been closed to the public. However,
when Moore asked if the Commission
could meet in “executive session” with
the county attorney to get advice on the
matter, Clark pointed out commissioners couldn’t meet in private since there
is no pending or threatened lawsuit
involved.
Give it time, though. If the jail and
milk issues handled by our county leaders are any indication, we’ll be looking
at lawsuits in no time.
Then, Commissioner Kathy Moore
and others can have their wish to really
keep the public out of the equation.
(July 19, 2006)
KEVIN LEWTER | THE MILLINGTON STAR
LSUE Bengal first baseman Leonard Porche falls down and
still tries to make a play at first during the championship
game against GRCC. Porsche and his LSUE teammates
swept both championship games, to win the school’s first
national title. (June 7, 2006)
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
12 - Awards
AWARDS
FROM PAGE 7
Stevens, Ben Doty, Margaret Banks,
Kenneth Garland
Carpenter.
“Very nice job. Editorials have a strong
sense of place and are well written. It’s
also nice to see that editorials went
beyond typical government coverage.”
Brewer
1. The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro – Sam Stockard
“You examine local issues of importance and show leadership in the
community. You offer concrete suggestions.”
– Stan Voit
– Doug Headrick
– Alane S. Megna
Fletcher
Tent comes down on circus of a job
CMYK
BY BILL WELLBORN
Editor, Memphis Business Journal
A recent call from
a pushy telemarketer reminded me
of a certain summer
when I acted sort of
like he did.
Needing employment between college semesters, I
Wellborn
answered a classified ad that promised $20 a day—cash.
$100 a week sounded pretty good to me
right about then, so I showed up the next
morning at an aging office building in
downtown Little Rock, trooped up a
flight of seedy stairs and entered an
entirely new world.
I found a warren of small offices
packed with scuffed desks and people
sitting at them talking on phones. I spied
a fellow with a huge white mustache
and goatee who was not on the phone. I
figured him to be the man in charge.
Resisting the urge to ask for a twopiece dinner, I announced that I was interested in work. I learned that everyone
present was selling tickets to a circus
that was coming to town. I would work
eight hours a day and be guaranteed
$20 cash—more if I exceeded a certain
quota of tickets.
In 1977, this was a bit more than the
minimum wage of $2.30 an hour, so I
signed on.
I was given a stack of cards with
names, phone numbers and a history
of giving. My job was to misrepresent
myself as a member of a local civic
organization and convince people to
buy circus tickets. The kicker was
that these tickets would be used to
send underprivileged children to the
big top and bring a little joy into their
desperate lives.
The first day was easy. Almost all the
people I called had purchased tickets
the previous year, so all I had to do
was get them to re-up. It hit my quota
and then some, because Col. Sanders
laid two twenties on me when I walked
past his desk.
First place award
It didn’t take long for me to become a
star in that circus ticket-selling game.
The tickets were—get this—$1 each. I
was averaging 20 tickets per call. The
daily cash reward kept coming.
After a week or so, I was moved to an
office occupied by the elite of circus
sellers. I wasn’t exactly welcomed,
probably because they saw me as an
interloper who might cut into their
profits. On some days, I did outsell
everyone in that room, including a
couple of British women who used
their accents to great effect. There was
a friendly fellow in the group who called
his daily payday “milk money,” which
he depended on to feed his children. I
was mostly buying beer with mine but
I didn’t tell him about it.
The English ladies’ sales levels were
pretty steady, but I held my own with
them. My Arkansas accent could sell,
too.
This other fellow, though, abruptly
went on a selling tear that left the rest
of us in his wake. Col. Sanders was
laying five or six twenties on him at
the end of every day. Then the colonel
discovered he was fudging on his sales
numbers. He was publicly canned, and
the English ladies smiled.
I didn’t keep track of how many tickets we sold, but I figured we could have
filled the venue with underprivileged
kids about eight times, and we were
selling a one-day vent.
One day the colonel got rid of everyone but the top sellers. We were told
to call back the folks who had turned
us down. I wasn’t too interested in
hard-sell telemarketing, so I suggested
that maybe we had sold quite enough
circus tickets.
The colonel laughed. The British
women smiled. I took my $20 and hit
the door.
(Aug. 25-31, 2006)
AUGUST 2007
– Michael Kelley, Blake Fontenay
“Strong local editorials. Nice job on
creating a lively page.”
2. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Hoyt
Canady, Jack McElroy, Jan Maxwell
Avent
Hopkins
4. The Tennessean, Nashville – Mike
Morrow, Ted Rayburn
1. Memphis Business Journal, “Time
to muzzle”
“Very strong, well-explained editorial.”
FROM PAGE 12
5. The Newport Plain Talk – Duay
O’Neil, Jim Hekel, Steve Blanchett,
Seth Butler
– Don Wade, “A call to arms”
“A lot of factors lead to this entry being
selected as the winner, but the writing
was clearly the best of all entries. The
narrative style brought these stories
to life, and especially was effective in
the crime series. Reporting was both
inspired and enterprising. Top-notch.”
2. The Tennessean, Nashville – Anita
Wadhwani
3. Bristol Herald Courier – Kathy Still
4. The Jackson Sun
– Christine Cook, Dave Flessner
“Good use of individuals to build issue
stories around. Also, good breadth to
your coverage. This entry was far and
away the best, both in scope of coverage
and quality of writing.”
3. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Ericka
Mellon
4. Bristol Herald Courier – Jennifer
Wig, Zach Fox, Debra McCown
BEST EDUCATION REPORTING
1. The Milan Mirror-Exchange – Steve
Short.
“Investigated teacher, dress code
– great coverage, well written stories. Someone obviously does their
homework. Nice coverage of school
system – shows newspaper is a sure
watchdog.”
John Latham
– Ed Cahill, Jessie Ellefson
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING
1. Weakley County Press, Martin,
“Eminent domain”
“I feel the newspaper’s role in bringing
the issue to the forefront had a direct
impact on the outcome – good job.
However, this is more straight news
than investigative reporting.”
– Ed Cahill
AWARDS
BEST SINGLE EDITORIAL
– “Wasting our money & influence”
“This well-written editorial explains
why readers should care about a somewhat arcane primary system and gives
specific, reasonable, recommendations
to address the problem.”
Mitchell
– John L. Kiener
CURT HABRAKEN | THE MOUNTAIN PRESS, SEVIERVILLE
Virginia Jacobs’ eyes tear up as she listens to her husband,
Gary, play his harmonica during a visit to Wellington
Place. (Oct. 11, 2006)
Habraken
First place award
Best feature photo
Group III - Dailies
The Mountain Press, Sevierville
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 9
1. Memphis Business Journal – Michael Sheffield.
“Good, informative in-depth coverage
with lean writing. While the numbers
of entries – only 3 – left me wanting to
read more, it was the good, solid, wellresearched, informative and relevant
reporting and writing that won this paper
a 1st place. Good work.”
– Steve Marion, Gayle Page
3. The Wilson Post, Lebanon – Sam
Hatcher, Zack Owensby, Jennifer
Horton
5. Hickman County Times, Centerville
First place award
Best feature photo
Group IV - Dailies
Greeson
KATHLEEN GREESON | CHATTANOOGA TIMES FREE PRESS
Karen Krug, 49, is disabled and retired early from her
nursing career because of a severe skin condition. She
has received multiple skin grafts over the past 13 years,
but since losing her TennCare coverage she no longer can
afford them. (Aug. 20, 2006)
The Tennessee Press
AUGUST 2007
Swisher, Nancy Glasscock, Chris
Fletcher, Thomas Munro, D. Frank
Smith.
“A nice variety of stories that show
the bright side of the schools but
don’t ignore the very substantive
issues confronting them.”
3. The Lebanon Democrat – Laurie
Everett
– Amy Ritchart, Melissa Tyndall, Nate
Karlin, Chris Smith
1. Memphis Business Journal – Michael Sheffield, “Playoffs – not profits”
“You didn’t have to be a sports fan to
appreciate the in-depth examination of
the Memphis Grizzlies’ financial issues.
The Journal methodically explored the
market, the team and the owner’s goals
in a series that should have been most
reading for anyone with an interest in
business in Memphis.”
2. Hickman CountyTimes, Centerville
– Bradley A. Martin
Blanton
4. The Wilson Post, Lebanon – Jennifer Horton
5. The Courier, Savannah – Ron
Schaming
– Amy Ritchart,Thomya Hogan, Melissa
Tyndall, “Buses unload”
“Great project! Makes registered
sex offender list much more relevant
to readers, provides info they need &
want to know.”
2. The Daily Times, Maryville – Rick
Laney
3. The Lebanon Democrat – Jason
Cox
5. The Daily News, Memphis – Andy
Meek
Awards - 13
BSP 2
TOMMY BRYAN | THE WILSON POST, LEBANON
Senior Wade Mitchell holds the silver trophy during closing ceremonies of the 2006 BlueCross Bowl at MTSU’s
Floyd Stadium. Jackson Christian defeated Friendship
19-13, ending a 14-game winning streak for the Commanders, who were ranked No. 1 in Class 1A most of
the season. (Dec. 5, 2006)
Bryan
“Lewd, nude”
First place award
Best sports photo
The Wilson Post, Lebanon
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
8 - Awards
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 14
50 ‘something’
BY DEBBIE CASH
A 40-something
friend of mine
called me at work
recently bubbling
with excitement because she’d bought
a house that morning. She wanted
me to stop by on
Cash
the way home from
the newspaper and check our her new
digs.
The purchase was a spur of the moment one, made because she hated renting—felt as if she were throwing money
away. Since she ordinarily agonizes over
even minor decisions, this was totally
out of character.
Her new home is located on the old
Jonesborough highway and was built
during those years when every home
had a distinct personality. When my
husband, grandbaby and I stopped by
that afternoon, we could find only good
things to say; the house has charm,
big rooms, a fireplace and plenty of
wonderful storage, a huge yard and
some great little extras like knotty
pine kitchen cabinets, hardwood floors,
First place award
wide mouldings, a big basement with
a workshop and, maybe best of all,
no close neighbors except those of a
bovine nature.
We walked the property and returned
to the house. While everyone else was
distracted, I gagged on my partial. Now
this isn’t too unusual. I have a gag reflect
that would make the worst bulimic
proud, and while getting accustomed
to this piece of dental wizardry I’ve
gotten amazingly adept at slipping it
out and stashing it in my bra until the
urge passes.
We congratulated my friend on her
wise purchase, climbed in the car and
started home. We decided when we hit
Market St. that we needed to stop at the
bread store. I ran in, shopped pretty fast
and returned to the car. When I reached
into the back seat to give the baby a
snack to tide him over until we could
get supper cooked, I clutched my chest
and moaned. My husband slammed the
car back into park and asked if I was in
pain. “No,” I replied in my horror. “My
teeth are gone!”
In a mild panic, I ran back into the
bread store and tried to unobtrusively
retrace my steps. Skimmed the donut
aisle, the Ho-Ho aisle and dug through
the rye bread and croutons. I bent over
and pretended to tie my shoe while I
checked out the floor. Eyeballing the other customers, I imagined them reaching
to pick up hot dog buns and coming up
instead with my lost teeth. One guy had
his preschool-aged daughter with him.
Can you imagine the trauma discovering my teeth would have caused? The
poor child would have grown up with
nightmares of biting burger buns and
afraid of SaraLee.
I ran back out to the car feeling like
a big dummy. “The only place they
could possibly be,” I explained to my
husband as he valiantly tried to keep
from laughing, “is in the yard we just
left. I remember sticking them in my
bra. They had to have slipped out!”
(Don’t tell me you’ve never stashed
something in “the vault!”)
Now this, while being possible, was
highly improbable. For many years
I’ve been blessed with enough cleavage
to store small objects in my Minimizer.
That comes in handy whey you’re fish-
ing and don’t have a pocket for your
license or when you’re at a funeral or
sad movie and know you’ll need extra
Kleenex. My mom kept a little hankie
there so she could spit-clean us if she
found dirt we missed. If the partial had
fallen out—could it be true?—that had
to mean I’d lost some weight.
And that’s the sad part of being 50something. Everything begins to sink
slowly in the sunset. To see my “boozums” now, I have to reach under my
arm and get them. About two years ago
I woke up one morning having decided
that I kind of like the skin I’m in and to
end my life-long diet while concentrating on just getting a little healthier.
At that moment I heard my guardian
angels singing the Hallelujah chorus.
So, naturally, having climbed out of
the dieting rut, I began to lose weight.
And you know the first place you lose
weight—right where you don’t want
to—you guessed it. The boobs!
We made it back to my friend’s new
home, and there, smiling pinkly at me,
lay my partial. We hadn’t run over it.
No beast had taken off with it. I was
very lucky. And very happy to find those
teeth. They’re store-bought, you see, and
they aren’t paid for yet!
(March 21, 2006)
The Tennessee Press
AWARDS
FROM PAGE 13
“Unique, fascinating & thorough look
inside one of the city’s seamier - &
profitable – industries.”
2. The Tennessean, Nashville – Brad
Schrade
4. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Cynthia
Yeldell, Hayes Hickman
5. Bristol Herald Courier – Matthew
Lakin
CMYK
HEADLINE WRITING
“By any measure, these headlines
are wonderfully creative & by far are
the best. Plus, the copy editor made
each fit tough headline-count layouts.
Great work!”
4. The Milan Mirror-Exchange – Bob
Parkins
City
“Very creative while making optimum
use of space – not only good but fit
perfectly.”
Wellborn
– Seth Wright
4. Independent Appeal, Selmer
“Excellent wordplay, good, active
headlines with tight counts – great
headlines!”
3. The Daily Herald, Columbia – Alex
Miller
Melson
– Rick Moore
“Excellent headlines, great wordplay
without using puns. Good, active-voice,
crisp headlines.”
4. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Donna
Cruze
– Hank Dudding
PUBLIC SERVICE
1. Mt. Juliet News – Laurie Everett,
“Schools/Teen Games/Help Center”
“Laurie Everett was a clear top reporter in this category. Her stories were
passionate, aggressive, compelling.
Her topics had life & death impact. As a
father of 3,Teen Games broke my heart.
This was a stellar example of true public
service reporting. Editorials, graphics,
logos & strong layout bolstered the
package. Schools also was strong with
real people context & easy-to-digest
charts. Great work all around!!!”
2. The Courier News, Clinton – Johanne Jean-Jacques, Jim Galyon, Ken
Leinart, Ron Bridgeman
4.The Erwin Record – Lesley Hughes,
Mark A. Stevens, Anthony D. Piercy,
Brenda Sparks, Bryan Stevens, Donna
Rea
Wainger
1. The Covington Leader – Greg Little,
Jay Albrecht, “911”
“It’s doubtful that the 911 center’s
director and its board would have been
responsive to calls for reform if not for
the exhaustive efforts of the Leader.
The newspaper fulfilled a vital watchdog role in exposing the shortcomings
both in service and in leadership. Great
work!”
Owensby, Jennifer Horton, Sam
Hatcher
5. None
1. The Mountain Press, Sevierville,
“Poverty”
“An ambitious project that shines a
light on a serious and chronic problem
facing the community. The news is
given a human face, making it compelling reading.”
“Dead voters/Election fraud”
“A fine example of reporting &
digging for the story. It took time &
determination to uncover this story
& in doing so served the residents of
Memphis well! Kudos! Way to keep
officials honest!”
4. The Jackson Sun – Dan Morris,
Lindsey McDonald
BEST NEWS PHOTOGRAPH
1. Livingston Enterprise, “Tree cuts
trailer
“Contrasts make this shot; fire,
light and darkness; big house, lone
firefighter.”
AUGUST 2007
The Tennessee Press
AUGUST 2007
Reaching the ‘I’ and ‘Me’ generation
Huntingdon – Shirley Nanney
– David Harrison
5. The Erwin Record – Brenda
Sparks
BY FRAN L. THOMAS
Staff writer
The Cordova Beacon
1.The Courier, Savannah – Ron Schaming, “Fire hall destroyed”
“A great reaction photo of a devastating event. It’s not every day a fire station
burns down and this photo captures the
resulting emotions perfectly.”
2. The Knoxville Journal – Jeremy
Z. Young
3. The Herald-News, Dayton – Jim
Ashley
4. LaFollette Press – Susan Sharp
5. Manchester Times
– Anthony Dake, “Shattered glass”
“Strong graphic appeal added to
quickly understood news content. We
would have liked it better cropped
just to broken glass and the face.”
Whitfield
3. The Greeneville Sun
– Susan W. Thurman
– Curt Habraken
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 15
GARY NELSON | CROSSVILLE CHRONICLE
ROBERT SMITH | THE LEAF-CHRONICLE, CLARKSVILLE
Smith
Kenwood’s Michael Forrest, rear, pulls in a pass for a
touchdown over Harpeth’s James Bullock during the
Montgomery County Football Jamboree at Clarksville
High School. (Aug. 19, 2006)
“Some people tap
their feet, some
people snap their
fingers, and some
people sway back
and forth. I just
sorta do ’em all
together, I guess.”
— Elvis Presley
Evans
Well, President
(George) Bush has
finally figured out what we Southerners
have known all along: he may be the
president, but Elvis is still king.
Last week Bush treated Japanese
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to
a highly publicized tour of Graceland,
where Koizumi, an avid Elvis fan,
enjoyed taking in the sights, dining on
friend chicken and biscuits and becoming the first prime minister to manage
to embarrass his entire nation at once
by belting out “Love Me Tender” at a
karaoke bar. It was a huge diplomatic
success.
Frankly, I don’t know why the administration didn’t think of this sooner.
Imagine if we’d only sent Saddam
Hussein a nice vinyl copy of “Jailhouse
Rock” along with those sanctions. He’d
be shaking his hips, wearing spangled
First place award
The Herald-News, Dayton
jumpsuits and leading his country to
democracy even as we speak. Elvis
Presley has a way of bringing out the
best in folks.
Maybe that’s why so many people still
insist on referring to Elvis’ “alleged”
gravesite. If you go online and type
“Is Elvis Alive?” into a search engine,
you’ll turn up more sites than you reckoned for, believe me. These people are
pretty certain the King lives. One site
even includes a computer-aged image
of Elvis showing what he would look
like at age 70. So we can all be on the
lookout for him. I’m beginning to worry
that a large percentage of the population thinks that the hymn “Because
He Lives” is a tribute to Elvis. I guess
it’s just too darned depressing to think
that someone as talented, handsome and
charismatic as Elvis could die with his
pants down, next to the toilet.
According to the Associated Press,
Koizumi was also quite impressed with
Southern food and culture. Stewards
on Air Force One even served fried
peanut butter and banana sandwiches
Nelson
First place award
Best feature photo
First place award
Best sports photo
Group III - Dailies
The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville
What the world needs now is a ‘big hunk o’ love’
BY RACHEL EVANS
Columnist, The Herald-News, Dayton
Awards - 7
to VIPs. Again, I just don’t know why
the administration didn’t think of this
sooner. Every foreign diplomat should
be introduced to fried food and sweet
tea before making a sweeping judgment
on the U.S. Perhaps we should consider
sending a complimentary KFC to North
Korea right now.
I think there’s just something about
the spirit of Elvis and the culture of
the South that makes folks feel like
they can let loose and be themselves.
Graceland, with its plush and gaudy
decorating, Elvis impersonators, overthe-top memorials and endless bazaar
of tacky, creates an atmosphere of lost
inhibitions. Combine that with Southern hospitality and the “right” kind of
barbecue (pulled, not chopped), and you
have a recipe for peace and good will for
all of mankind.
I think that’s why Graceland receives
more visitors than Hermitage, Monticello, Hearst Castle and the White
House combined. In a world full of
straight-laced historical figures and
uptight leaders, we need to honor the
man who first allowed the world to get
all shook up.
Koizumi left the U.S. for Japan with a
jukebox full of Elvis songs, compliments
of the USA. It’s good to know that our
taxpayer dollars are finally being used
to make a difference in the world.
(July 9, 2006)
AWARDS
FROM PAGE 6
“Division III series make this entry
automatic finalist. Good idea, interesting
information & well written.The interview
at Wal-Mart topped it off perfectly. Stories outside series are also excellent.
Video guy takes me behind the scenes
& workout for coaches is neat. This is
more than x’s and o’s & considerably
more thoughtful than most – if not all
– other entries.”
2. The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro – Adam Sparks, Josh Beasley, David
Boclair, Steve Heath
3.The Daily Herald, Columbia – Marion
Wilhoite, Justin Lamb
4. Herald-Citizen, Cookeville – Buddy
Pearson
5. Union City Daily Messenger – Mike
Hutchens
1. The Tennessean, Nashville.
“Very nice mix, with some excellent
feature writing (Pacman, Moore), news
writing (McNair) and creative angles
(gambling, anti-sports). The last, antisports, is among the best of its kind
of read, and Pacman was a whole of
The Crossville Police Department,
Cumberland County law enforcement
and dozens of others gathered and
gave thanks to those in law enforcement positions who have fallen in the
line of duty. Both Crossville Mayor
J.H. Graham and County Mayor Brock
Hill spoke at the memorial. Mayor Hill
proclaimed May 17 as National Peace
Officers Memorial Day and Week.
Crossville Police Sgt. Brian Eckelson
bows his head as “Taps” is played.
(May 24, 2006)
a read. Nit: with a few exceptions,
stories would have improved with
a 20-30 percent trim. Especially the
long ones, and including Pacman. But
overall, strong.”
4. The Jackson Sun – Bob Heist,
Joshua Parrott
5. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Mike
Strange
SUNDAY EDITIONS
Dailies
“The design of this newspaper makes
it very easy to navigate and very inviting. Centerpieces were exceptional,
particularly the Mississippi River section
& ‘A Family’s Hard Road.” Geoff Calkins
column on Jack Williams ‘touched &
inspired,’ as the Readership Institute’s
experience study would say. His other
columns were top shelf, too. The M &
Viewpoint sections are well planned
& well executed. It’s nice to see Chris
Peck’s column in the paper. Also, a lot
of locals get their pictures in the newspaper. My only quibble – other papers
are doing a better job of driving readers
to their Web sites. The runaway winner
in a category of strong entries.”
I think that I was
born in the wrong
generation. A generation when neighbor cared about
neighbor,whenyour
brother’s burden
instantly became
your own—that’s
the era where my
Thomas
heart feels the most
at home.
Like so many children growing up in
a divorced home, my sisters and I were
all latch-key kids. With my mother away
working as a pasteurizer at the local
milk plant and my father enveloped in
his newest love interest, my sisters and
I often left and returned from school to
an empty house.
As we grew older, we each found things
within our community to fill the void
of having two absentee parents. For
me those void fillers were professional
dance classes and hanging out with the
elderly men and women that sprinkled
our neighborhood.
From my many hours spent with
these forgotten heroes, I garnered a
heart rich in compassion and service
to others. These beautiful men and
women taught me what it meant to live
a life where you cared for your fellow
man—where walking past the pain and
suffering of another became a foreign
concept to the soul.
Escorted through the volumes of their
old photo albums, each of my babas and
mamas transported me to the generation of their childhoods.
Through their eyes I witnesses the
great depression that united a segregated country. I stood at the train depots
of America and welcomed the newest
group of immigrants arriving from Ellis Island and saw their personal welfare
instantly become the responsibility
of every member of their new-found
community.
It was at the feet of my elders I learned
my greatest lesson in life: in a round
world there exists no “I” or “Me,” only
“Us” and “We.”
The generation that my children live
in today is quite different from the one
that raised me. For them, life revolves
around getting and possessing, so much
so that the simple concept of someone
giving to his neighbor instantly becomes a “newsworthy” feature article
in “People” magazine. What a pity.
It’s a shame that it takes individuals
such as Oprah Winfrey, Angelina Jolie
and Madonna to embarrass a country
3. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Rusty
Pabst
4. The Jackson Sun
First place award
The Cordova Beacon
so filled with wealth into the realization
that “you are not rich if your brother
is poor.”
I guess the thing that I can’t understand is, how in just 30 short years
did we forget that surviving life
takes a collective effort? I mean, has
the prosperity that our parents and
grandparents fought so hard to give us
only served to make us a dispassionate,
self-centered society? I just don’t get it,
or perhaps I do.
When I was in college, with funds low
and tuition high, I took a job at a local
hotel as a PBX operator. With almost
no training, I found myself sinking at
even the smallest of tasks and finally
decided to inform my boss that I would
be resigning.
I was amazed when my supervisor
told me, “Oh, just hang in there. It
took me a while to learn the system
and in time you’ll figure it out also.” I
can remember my blood boiling at the
thought that this person who saw me
struggling on a daily basis all along
possessed the ability to help but chose
not to. I couldn’t remain quiet.
Looking at her straight in the eye, I
said, “So you know how to operate this
system, and it never once dawned on you
to train me on how to work it? You would
rather have all the customers miss their
wake-up calls and phone messages
because I don’t know the system than
to take an hour of your time to teach
me how to operate it? What could you
possibly be thinking?”
It was her reply that, to this day,
still saddens my heart. Looking at me
with an expression of surprise, she
replied, “Well, nobody showed me how
to work it, and I had to teach myself,
so why should your experience be any
different?”
Grabbing my things to leave, I turned
to her with tears in my eyes and said,
“That’s the saddest part. That someone,
like yourself, who’s dug themselves out
of a ditch, would stand by and watch the
next person walking down that path fall
into the same hole is simply unforgivable. Congratulations on your newest
promotion. You’ve gone from victim to
victimizer—how does it feel?”
Looking away, my supervisor was
speechless, because deep down inside
she knew I was right.
To me, our current societal mindset
is very similar to that of my former
supervisor: nobody wants to lend a
EDITORIALS
1. The Courier News, Clinton – Ron
Bridgeman.
“Good use of columns to argue for
important local issues. Writing showed
passion and liveliness.”
helping hand to his neighbor. We hem
and haw and make excuses, all the while
justifying our selfishness by quoting the
phrase written by the ancient Greek
playwright Aeschylus, “God helps those
who help themselves.” How incredulous
the thought!
The truth of the matter is this: we all
need each other, and that’s okay.
You know, in all of my 38 years on
earth, I still couldn’t draw you a definitive picture of what the hands and face
of God look like. Nobody can.
I mean, ask the woman who was pulled
out of the burning Twin Towers on Sept.
11 this question, and she’ll probably
say that God’s hands resembled those
of the New York City firefighters who
helped her.
Ask the same question to the parents
of a heart and lung transplant recipient
and they will probably say that God’s
feet look like those of the deceased
donor who gave their child back his
or her life.
The point is, God’s hands and feet
resemble the individual who allows Him
to use them. It’s not rocket science; it’s
just charity.
Within the next 18 months, my
children and I will welcome into our
home a 10-year-old AIDS orphan from
Ethiopia.
On the day that she joins our family, it
will be the fulfillment of a dream that I
have carried in my heart for more than
a decade. Although when I originally
decided to adopt my daughter I was
married, the fact that I am now a single
mother of two hasn’t swayed my desire
to adopt her in the least bit.
My desire to open up my home, and
heart, to another child has everything
to do with the need of the child and
absolutely nothing to do with my current marital status.
To me, leaving this child to live a life
of dire poverty and limited possibilities,
when I had the power to do otherwise,
would be inhumane. Realistically speaking, my future daughter did not choose
to be orphaned or born poor. She doesn’t
possess the ability to change her destiny
on her own accord, but I can.
No matter how much easier it would
be to live a life of self-absorption, the fact
still remains that we are our brother’s
keeper. I can only pray that this generation will grasp hold of the concept
of depositing compassion before they
themselves need to make a withdrawal
from the same account during their
hour of need.
Perhaps the late tennis great Arthur
Ashe said it best when he said, “From
what we get, we can make a living; what
we give, however, makes a life.”
(Nov. 16, 2006)
Mitchell
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 8
CMYK
14 - Awards
AWARDS
FROM PAGE 5
2. The Covington Leader – Gwen
Matheny
5. Manchester Times
CMYK
1. Citizen Tribune, Morristown.
“Good use of graphics! Lots of local
people – weddings/births/columns.
Great section. Good feature stories on
front to pull readers in.”
2. The Newport Plain Talk – Kathy
Barnes-Hemsworth, Angela Hull, Dion
Dykes Sr.
3. The Daily Herald, Columbia – Marvine Sugg
“I’m blown away. Submitted family
photos, stories charging racism, photos
of sweet old dogs, and page treatment
on par with some national dailies.You’ve
got it all and treat it beautifully.”
2. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Susan
Alexander, Chuck Campbell, Lynn
Lewis
SPORTS WRITING
Henderson – James A. Webb.
“Good variety of stories. In-depth &
personal look at individuals within story.
Girls’ game too – good subject matter
development. Good quotes.”
2. The Erwin Record – Kevin Lewis,
Jerry Hilliard
3. Weakley County Press, Martin
– Stephanie Sturgis
O’Kelly
– Rob Nunley, Dale Stubblefield
“Entry shows outstanding depth by
showcasing features, gamers, news
& stories not only about prep sports.
Writing could use polishing but this
section knows how to ensure local
readers get local input that relates to
& interests them.”
2. LaFollette Press – Dwane Wilder
– Darren Reese
4.The Courier, Savannah – Brian Reid,
Amy Reid, Shelia Bomar
5. Robertson County Times, Springfield – Joshua R. Wilkins
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 7
Tennessee Press Association
thanks the following:
The University of Tennessee Office of Public Relations
and members of the staff, Hank Dye, Charles Primm, Karen
Collins, Amy Blakely and Amy Rummel
and the School of Journalism
for the excellent relationship that has existed
more than 50 years, during which time UT has participated in
the implementing of the UT-TPA State Press Contests and has
provided plaques and certificates and assisted in various other
facets of the awards event,
and
Chris Fletcher, editor
of The Daily Herald, Columbia,
2006-07 Contests Committee chairman,
and
Members
of the 2006-07 TPA Contests Committee
for their contributions, guidance
and support of the contests.
AUGUST 2007
AWARDS
FROM PAGE 14
1. The Tennessean, Nashville, “2 die
in house fire”
“The strongest spot news image
we’ve seen in all of the categories we
judged. Nothing is wasted – flames blast
out the windows while firefighters pull a
badly injured man to safety. This photo
gives the reader a glimpse of firefighters’
worst nightmares.”
Clarke
Clarke
– Angela Lewis
BFP 1
ED FARRELL AND JAMES A. WEBB | CHESTER COUNTY INDEPENDENT, HENDERSON
Farrell
Webb
First place award
Best feature photo
Chester County Independent,
Henderson
Sgt. Dustin M. Adkins – Jan. 6, 1984-Dec.
3, 2006 [funeral] (Dec. 14, 2006)
‘The Jungle’ must be tamed
BY ANDREA HOPKINS
The tangle of
weeds, trees and
manmade debris
known as “The Jungle” sits a heartbeat
away from downtown Bristol.
Yet, this no man’s
land, where human
Hopkins
predators rule, was
unknown to many
in the city until a man died last week
as a result of a savage beating inflicted
in its confines.
Jerry Stout’s death is a tragic wakeup call. “The Jungle” is a blight on the
city that can no longer be ignored. It is
a safety hazard for those who work nearby and for the homeless and hard-luck
types who venture into its overgrown
recesses; it must be eliminated.
Cut the weeds, underbrush and
trees that provide ample cover for
those whose hearts harbor criminal
intent. Secure the empty buildings.
If they cannot be secured, tear down
the abandoned loading docks that
once served industry but now serve as
makeshift shelter for some of the city’s
homeless residents. Add fences and
security lights around the businesses
that still operate.
It’s time to tame “The Jungle.”
The responsibility for cleaning up
this urban eyesore rests first with the
private property owners who hold the
deeds to this narrow, multi-acre strip of
land between Commonwealth Ave. and
Bob Morrison Blvd. That includes Nor-
First place award
Group IV - Dailies
folk Southern, which is responsible for
the area around the railroad tracks that
traverse a portion of the property.
The owners should have paid attention
earlier but did not. Stout’s death—and
the potential legal ramifications that
might arise from it—should prompt
action now.
If the owners won’t clean up the
property, the city of Bristol Virginia
must act. The city attorney suggests
the junk ordinance and code sections
dealing with overgrown properties
give the municipality the authority it
needs to effect a cleanup. The city should
consider sending inmate work crews
to cut brush and pick up the trash and
debris strewn across the site; then, the
city should send the bill to the property
owners.
“The Jungle” didn’t grow overnight.
It flourished as a result of years of
disinterest and neglect.
In Mach 2005, a series of Bristol
Herald Courier articles on homelessness in Bristol reflected the reality of
life in “The Jungle.” Mattresses, quilts
and makeshift bedding litter the old
loading docks. Alcoholism, drug abuse
and mental illness haunt many of the
residents—people who are alive but not
really living. Female residents faced
constant threat of sexual abuse.
Even hardened residents of the street
sense the danger.
“In here, you don’t see nothing. You
don’t hear nothing. You don’t know
nothing,” said Mike Countiss as he led
a reporter on a tour of “The Jungle.”
That law of the jungle proved true for
Jerry Stout. The 54-year-old was beaten,
robbed of a small amount of cash and
left for dead in the weeds two weeks ago.
Hours passed before someone called
police. Even after they were notified,
police had difficulty locating Stout’s
battered and broken body.
The gravely injured man made it to the
hospital but never recovered.
If investigators know what attracted
Stout to “The Jungle,” they aren’t saying. The reason he entered “The Jungle”
matters not. Stout was a human being.
He has a mother, a brother, sisters and
nieces and nephews who grieve.
A niece, Shannon Abele, made a public plea to the city to tear down “The
Jungle” as a lasting tribute to her uncle.
Such decisive action would bring something positive from a family’s pain.
Further, it would not hurt the city’s
homeless, even those who prefer hiding
in “The Jungle” and indulging their
vices or battling their demons in private.
The present scenario encourages the
strong to prey on the weak. It provides
cover for all manner of criminal acts,
from prostitution to illegal drug use.
And it does nothing to assist those with
substance abuse problems or mental
illness.
A better solution is needed. Tame
“The Jungle.”
(Sept. 26, 2006)
The Tennessee Press
AUGUST 2007
BEST FEATURE PHOTOGRAPH
Henderson – James A. Webb, Ed Farrell,
“Sgt. Dustin Adkins”
“A story told visually, with a variety of
angles – and a nice dominant image.”
5. Monroe County Advocate & Democrat, Sweetwater – Melissa Kinton
1. Crossville Chronicle, “Honoring
the fallen”
“Great composition; gets the feel of
the event.”
City
– Dave Gentry
4. Memphis Business Journal – Alan
Howell
– Curt Habraken, “Alzheimer’s”
“Layering and emotion tell a long story
in one image. Easy call for first.”
Sullivan
5. CitizenTribune, Morristown – Chuck
Hale
– Kathleen Greeson, “Faces of
TennCare”
“Photographer applies a strong visual
theme to many different subjects & situations. Extremely well photographed,
which carries the package well. We
particularly like the portrait of the Freeman family.”
Awards - 15
– Dan Henry
3. The Jackson Sun – Lindsay McDonald
4. Bristol Herald Courier – Andre
Teague
5. Kingsport Times-News – Erica
Yoon
BEST SPORTS PHOTOGRAPH
1. The Millington Star, “Porche defensive play”
“Great extension by the baseball
player; excellent photo work. Five columns would have been even better.”
2. The Humboldt Chronicle – Barry
DeLoach
O’Kelly
4. Chester County Independent, Henderson James A. Webb, René Webb
1. The Wilson Post, Lebanon – Tommy
Bryan, “Cinderella boots FCS from
the ball”
“At first we couldn‘t figure out why
everyone was so dejected with such a
large trophy. But the storytelling element brings it through for the reader to
the point where we share the dejection
of the players. The dejection is even
layered back through the image all the
way to #17 and even the fans.”
City
3. The Herald-News, Dayton – Cathy
Chapman
– Ronnie Housley
5. News-Herald, Lenoir City – Jammie Graves
– Robert Smith, “Michael Forrest pulls
down a touchdown”
“The player’s catch, and the photo,
were a head above the competition.
Great expression. Well done.”
Sullivan
3. Herald-Citizen, Cookeville – Ben
Winters
Whitfield
– Mark Weber, “Comeback kids”
“A nicely layered photograph – lots to
see, and something different every time
you look – the coach is fired up, the ref
is ready and the players are smirking.
Fun sideline photograph.”
2. Bristol Herald Courier – Earl
Neikirk
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 16
First place award
Best sports photo
Group IV - Dailies
MARK WEBER | THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL, MEMPHIS
Put your dukes down, Coach. It’s going to be OK. John
Calipari has one of the zebras in his sights during his
team’s 68-54 victory over Houston at FedExForum.
(March 11, 2006)
Weber
5-letter words can be just as effective as 4-letter words
BY DAVID CRITCHLOW JR.
Editor, Union City Daily Messenger
Hi, my name is David, and I’m obese.
At least that’s what
my doctor said.
After what I considered an overly
thorough medical
examination, he
studied what he
Critchlow
called an “ideal
weight” pinwheel.
“Let’s see,” he said. “At 6-foot-6,
your ideal weight is around 216 to 218
pounds.”
He glanced up to find me laughing as
I responded, “I can’t get there unless I
cut a leg off and I’m not sure that will
be enough.”
Returning to his pinwheel, He told
me that, based on my height, that between 220 and 260 would be considered
overweight.
“So where does that leave me?” I
asked.
“Obese,” he said bluntly.
Ouch!
“It could be worse,” he said. “At least
you’re not morbidly obese—yet.”
“Ah, what a relief,” I said. “I can take
great comfort in that.”
So there it is. I’m a statistic. America’s
getting fatter and I’m at the head of the
pack (or should that be ‘back of the pack’
or ‘fatback of the pack”).
First place award
Group III - Dailies
Union City Daily Messenger
Either way, as I passed the fast food
restaurant on my way home, I thought
my day couldn’t get much worse.
Looking for comfort, and not with
a loaded double cheeseburger with a
thick layer of mayonnaise this time, I
wandered home to find my wife and a
friend waiting.
I recounted the day’s events, including
the awful five-letter word with which I
had been branded.
Think “obese” is a bad five-letter word?
Try following it up with “loser.”
That one came out as part of a comment from the family friend.
“What about being part of “biggest
losers?” she asked.
“And just what’s that supposed to
mean?” I responded.
It turns out the well-intentioned
friend thought I may want to consider
taking part in Health Quest’s healthconscious but light-hearted “Biggest
Loser” weight loss program.
As they say, good news travels fast.
Word of my obesity traveled quickly,
and I became a top draft pick prospect
for many “Biggest Loser” teams in the
formative stages.
“Look at the bright side,” I was told.
“The first weigh-in isn’t until Sept. 23,
so you can eat all you want until then.
In fact, our team can get together for
pizza and cold beverages the night
before and then have a big breakfast
buffet the day of the weigh-in to tack
on some last-minute weight.”
Great. Now I’m being talked into
going on a two-week eating binge so I
can gain weight—just so I can give it all
up for 10 weeks of punishing workouts
while consuming celery sticks, carrots,
granola bars, vitamins and who knows
what else.
Some people who know I’m considering taking part are already proposing
some very nice names for our team, such
as “Sweat Hogs,” “Blubbering Idiots,”
“Whale Watchers,” “Fat Chance” and
“OB City,” a play on the word obesity, if
you didn’t catch on to that one.
So let me “weigh” the pros and cons.
If I take part in this, I have a chance
to lose weight and my four-person team
has a chance at winning $1,000, a threemonth Health Quest membership and
a one-hour body massage.
Then again, I may just lose weight. Not
much of a con, if I do say so myself.
So guess what? I accept the challenge,
and I challenge anyone to try to keep up
with us. While your teams are weighing
in at Health Quest Sept. 23, our team will
probably head over to a local livestock
barn for our team weigh-in.
Good luck, and may the best team win,
especially if it’s us.
(Sept. 16, 2006)
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
6 - Awards
AWARDS
5. The Covington Leader – Steven
Liles, Greg Little, Gwen Matheny
FROM PAGE 15
– Dan Henry
5. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Clay
Owen
CMYK
BEST SPECIAL ISSUE OR SECTION
1. The Humboldt Chronicle – April
Jackson, Beverly Ward, Danny Wade,
“Strawberry Festival”
“I want to live in Humboldt now! Really
shows community spirit.”
2. Mt. Juliet News
Henderson
5. Independent Herald, Oneida
1. The News Examiner, Gallatin, “Tornado Recovery”
“Head & shoulders above any other
entry in this category. To produce a 44pg. section of this depth within a month
of such a major disaster is nothing short
of amazing. Before & after photos were
a brilliant idea. Stories by the children
were very poignant. Outstanding!”
City
4. The Knoxville Journal – Nancy Morris, Beth Emge, Stephanie Edwards,
Chris Shields, Jeremy Z. Young, Kevin
Pettiford, Steve Patterson, Patricia Griffeth
“Welcome Home”
“A class effort that hits all the bases
in honoring troops returning home, their
families’ sacrifices and their fallen comrades. Well-written and presented.”
3. Citizen Tribune, Morristown
5. The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro – Gary Frazier, Linda Sneed,
Lindsey Jackson
“Mystery Mississippi”
“The Commercial Appeal’s long journey down an apparently long-pondered
but seldom-evaluated topic truly sheds
light on a Mississippi River that even
many locals don’t know. Put forth brilliantly by writer Charlier and shooter
Spearman, the first part of “Mystery
Mississippi –The RiverYou Don’t Know”
sets the stage for what promises to be
an informative and eye-opening trip
(in words and photo) for readers, one
that drives home what the mighty river
means to them and how its presence
affects their lives. Writing, photography
and design are stellar.”
2. The Jackson Sun
Anderson, Randles schedules
Newspaper Circulation Bootcamp
Anderson, Randles and Associates
has scheduled its 13th Newspaper
Circulation Bootcamp. The event will
be Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 12
and 13, in Atlanta.
The program is designed for circulation directors, especially new ones,
mid-level/future circulation executive
staff, publishers, general managers,
editors and financial managers.
The subject to be covered is “What
You Should Know About Your Circulation Department and How to Build
Circulation Volume.” Sessions are set
on circulation overview, department
structure, subscriber marketing, pricing strategies, customer service, single
copy sales, metrics and tracking and
financial management.
Leaders will be Don Michel and Phil
Hanna.
The registration and payment deadline is Aug. 13. The first day’s session
starts at 8 a.m., and the final session
the next day, at 3 p.m.
The rate for staying at the Fairfield
Inn/Suites near the airport is $99 plus
tax. A free shuttle delivers people from
the airport to the inn.
The cost is $595 for the first attendee
and $495 for each additional person
from the same newspaper. This covers
sessions, materials, luncheons and
coffee breaks only.
For more information, one can
contact Michel at (319) 390-9288 or
[email protected] or Hanna at (770)
252-5900 or paperboy@summergrove.
net.
AUGUST 2007
Flavor of the games? Rich, dark, creamy…
BY GEOFF CALKINS
TURIN, ITALY—
So I was standing
there, having given
up my seat to Nancy
Kerrigan…
You gave up your
seat to Nancy Kerrigan?
Yes.
Why?
Calkins
On account of
the strike.
What strike?
The bus strike.
Right. Late at night. The reporters
were headed to the buses, on their way
home, when the drivers all stood up and
left. Someone said they decided to have
a strike. Or maybe a smoke. Whichever,
that’s when it occurred to me.
What?
I need to strike. To take a day off,
to kick back, to drink red wine and
eat good food and smoke unfiltered
cigarettes like the Italians do.
But you don’t smoke.
True enough. But I like chocolate! And
I had discovered something called the
ChocoPass, which enables you to pay
one price and walk around the city and
eat chocolate at all the finest chocolate
shops in Turin.
Are there a lot of chocolate shops
in Turin?
Are there a lot of barbecue shops in
Memphis?
There are hundreds of chocolate
shops in Turin. Chocolate shops and
lingerie shops. Which is odd, really.
Why?
Wouldn’t too much of one cause you
to outgrow the other?
Hmmmm. But why the emphasis on
chocolate?
A man from Turin invented it.
Nu-uh.
Uh-huh.
Willie Wonka invented it.
No.
First place award
Group IV - Dailies
The Swiss, then.
Ahhh, a common misconception.
In the late 18th century, a man named
Doret invented a machine to make solid
chocolate.
Before then it was hollowed-out chocolate, like our Easter bunnies?
No, it was liquid chocolate, like our
Hershey’s Syrup. Until Doret came up
with his invention. Which was then
taken to Switzerland and, to think, the
Swiss have a reputation for being peaceful, neutral people.
It’s outrageous!
Unless you consider that the Italians
get credit for pasta, which Marco Polo
actually took from the Orient.
Marco?
Polo.
Marco?
Polo. You really have had too much
chocolate, haven’t you?
Exactly! The first stop was a place
called Pepipo, where they gave me and
a colleague pure, black chocolate syrup
in a teacup. It was rich.
How rich was it?
Pepipo is near the plaza where the “Today Show” has set up shop. You’ve seen
the people jumping up and down behind
the set? My colleague had a theory.
Yes?
They’d all been to Pepipo. Anyway,
then it was on to Stratta, where they
gave me pralines “made of extra bitter
chocolate mixed with cinnamon, ginger,
mint and ginger lemon.” Just then, a
funeral procession went past.
Tragic.
Death by chocolate. But onward we
marched, undaunted, to Café Torino and
Guido Gobino and Gertosio. At Gertosio,
they had chocolate pasta and a large
chocolate cabbage in the window.
Chocolate cabbage?
Because it’s important to eat your
vegetables. And then we came to Al
Bicerin, the Mecca, the city’s delicious
nougaty center. They sell something
called bicerin, which is a glass filled
with chocolate, then coffee, then a
thick layer of cream on top of it. We
ordered two. We sat at an outside table.
We drank our bicerin and contemplated
life and said, ‘Hey, isn’t that Nancy
Kerrigan?’”
Was it?
Yes! She went into the shop. She went
in for so long, we wondered if she’d
come out as Tonya Harding.
Then she emerged. And kept shooting glances at me. Shyly, she sent an
emissary.
“Can we use your table?”
Oh.
“We’re here with ‘Entertainment
Tonight.’”
Ahhh.
But you felt dopey.
Yes, but then the play started!
The play?
The rehearsal of a play to be out on in
the square that evening. It was glorious!
They played Puccini! I asked Tonya, the
director, what it was about.
“Chocolate,” she said.
Naturally.
How did all this go over with the
“Entertainment Tonight” crew?
Not very well, actually. They were
trying to film Kerrigan drinking a
bicerin. They needed quiet. So they
hired a thug to whack the director on
the knee…
Did not.
Ok, you got me. But they did ask the
players to stop rehearsing. Which did
not go over very well with Tonya.
“They needed to interview this girl,”
she said.
Any idea who she is?
“I do not care,” she said. “The play
will suffer.”
So that’s how it ended, with suffering,
and art, and Nancy.
(Feb. 25, 2006)
Four out of five newspaper Web site readers also read printed edition
A new study recently released by the
Newspaper National Network LP, conducted by Scarborough Research, found
that 81 percent of newspaper Web site
users also read the printed newspaper
in the last seven days. Crossover users
(those who used both print and online
newspapers in the past seven days) have
deep affinity with both their printed
newspaper and their newspaper Web
site, and 83 percent say, “I love both
my printed newspaper and visiting my
newspapers Web site.” Crossover users
visit their newspaper Web site to:
1. Access breaking news (96%)
2. Find articles seen previously
(85%)
3. Find things to do/places to go
(72%).
Jason E. Klein, president and chief ex-
ecutive officer of NNN, said “The study
shows that the core newspaper reader
now accesses his or her local newspaper
across multiple formats and is deeply
engaged: 83% of crossover users say
their newspaper site will be among their
primary destinations five years from
now.”The study found that newspaper
Web site-only users are 55 percent
female, while crossover users are only
48 percent female. The main reasons
newspaper Web site-only users cited for
using newspaper Websites are:
1. Accessing local news (84%)
2. Entertainment information (74%)
3. Food or restaurant information
(58%)
Newspaper Web site-only users are a
Web-savvy group, as 52 percent write or
read blogs and 46 percent have joined a
Web community.
The two segments differ in the time of
day they use newspapers:
1. Crossover users are more likely to
read their printed newspaper in the morning (63% read the printed newspaper
before 10) and access their newspaper Web
site in the afternoon or evening (46%).
2. Newspaper Web site only users are
more likely to access the Web site in the
morning (49% of Web site-only users
access the Web site before 10 vs. 34% of
crossover users).
Contrary to some perceptions, the Web
has not hurt overall newspaper consumption, as 87% of crossover users report
that their time spent with newspaper
media has increased or remained the
same versus only 12% who say time spent
has decreased.
Other key study findings:
The last time you read or looked into
any printed copy of the (Newspaper
Name):
1. Read last 7 days: 81%
2. Read 8-30 days ago: 9%
3. Read longer than 30 days ago: 7%
4. Never read: 3%
Combined time spent with print and
Web-based newspaper media since you
began using a newspaper Web site:
1. 52% remained the same
2. 35% increased
3. 12% decreased
4. 1% Don’t know
For more information, visit www.
naa.org to find the NNN Newspaper
Footprint Study.
The Tennessee Press
AUGUST 2007
AWARDS
FROM PAGE 4
at Clinton High School, Gail Upton was
escorted by armed soldiers and tanks.
. .or one of your other pow! graphs.
Loved the story.”
Stevens
Wainger
City – Steve Marion, “Still fighting for
their lives”
“Compelling. Great use of quotes
and description.”
– James Clark
– Christopher Sheffield
“Survivor’s story.”
“The ‘appreciation’ nearly brought me
to tears.The story was skillfully reported
by a writer who let her subject do all
the work. Lesser writers would have
added violins.”
2. The Daily News, Memphis – Rosalind Guy
3. The Daily Herald, Columbia – Greg
Menza
4. The Daily Herald, Columbia – Thomas Munro, Chris Fletcher
1. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Matt
Lakin, “All that remains”
“The breadth of the story made it
the best of a very, very competitive
category. There were 16 entries in this
category; the ones that did not make the
cut would probably be winners against
any other competition, any other year.
This story, however, stood out. It was
more than a report on a family’s grief;
it gave us insight into the perpetrator,
the legal system, and the realities beyond one terrible accident. A story that
informed us and made us empathize.
Well done!”
2. News Sentinel, Knoxville – Kevin
Cowan
– Bob Mehr
5. The Tennessean, Nashville – Leon
Alligood
COMMUNITY LIFESTYLES
1. Ashland City Times – Randy
Moomaw, Jennifer Noland, Matt
Anderson.
“Great variety of stories about people
and what they are doing. Excellent use
of quotes to bring stories to life. Be
consistent with your society news.
We know where baby Austin Lee’s
ancestors lived, but not his parents or
grandparents. Some photos are played
too big (2 columns for military – what
about a half-column headshot) and
some too small. Some sports photos
could benefit from cropping. Wonderful
parade photo pages. Loved the health
articles by Moomaw – so important
to inform readers about these topics.
Not too many papers use tabs for community news – refreshing!”
3. The Erwin Record – Bryan Stevens, Keith Whitson, Mark A. Stevens,
Jerry Hilliard, Anthony D. Piercy, Lesley
Hughes, Donna Rea
– Debbie Cash, Heather E. Seay, Charlie Mauk, Lynn J. Richardson, Hope
DeWitt
Huntingdon – Ron Park, John Latham,
Shirley Nanney
1. The Elk Valley Times, Fayetteville
– Lucy Carter, Laurie Pearson, Sandy
Williams, Paul Henry.
“What a wonderful job! You get a lot
of great people news onto these pages,
but the eye isn’t conflicted on where to
go first.These pages are clearly a priority
at your newspaper, and I’m sure your
readers appreciate them.”
Awards - 5
First place award
Best news photo
Group IV - Dailies
The Tennessean, Nashville
Partipilo
JOHN PARTIPILO | THE TENNESSEAN, NASHVILLE
Nashville firefighters pull James Hurt from his home on
Green St. that was engulfed in flames.Two others rescued
from the blaze died of smoke inhalation and severe burns.
Hurt, 73, was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical
Center and was in critical condition. The fire began in a
rear bedroom of the house. (Nov. 3, 2006)
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
16 - Awards
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 6
Culleoka school door flap opens on wider concerns
BY SKYLER SWISHER
Staff writer
How many Maury
County school bureaucrats does it
take to change a door
frame? Apparently,
all of them is not
enough.
Since the beginning of the school
Swisher
year, a set of doors
that swing the wrong way in violation
of fire codes has delayed the opening of
the otherwise complete Culleoka Unit
School library.
School officials first learned of the
violation in the spring, but eight months
later, students remain barred from the
library. And even though a state fire
marshal says the problem is a design
flaw created by the architect, our school
system has been pushing taxpayers to
cough up $6,600—an amount worthy
of the Pentagon’s purchasing department—for repairs.
Director of Schools Eddie Hickman,
whose authority over the $13 million
unit schools renovation is near absolute, refuses to answer our questions
about the issue. The School Board
signed Hickman’s hall pass in Septem-
First place award
Group III - Dailies
ber 2005, when its members abdicated
their responsibility for overseeing him
by voting to indefinitely postpone discussion on construction changes.
His has left no one around to answer
questions such as when the library will
reopen, why the issue was not addressed
earlier, why the repair is going to cost so
much and why the architect, SSOE Inc.,
should not pay for its own mistake.
One of the few officials who has addressed the situation is School Board
Chairman Shaw Daniels, who just happens to work for SSOE. Daniels initially
blamed the codes violation on the first
marshal “changing his mind.” When
that official made it clear the fault lay
with SSOE for submitting faulty plans,
Daniel took another tact, arguing the
$6,600 needed to swap the door frame
would come not from tax dollars, but
“cost savings” achieved by SSOE.
“Cost savings?” Who is he kidding?
Cost savings are provided by companies
that stick to original bids and don’t try
to double-charge clients for a job they
bungled.
The episode highlights a few problems we believe should be addressed
immediately by our school and county
officials:
•The school system needs to hire
a facilities manager. Hickman and
Budget Director Walter Bobo do not
have the time or expertise to effectively
supervise the district’s growing construction needs.
This was pointed out in an April
performance review that cost taxpayers
$150,000, but it has yet to be discussed by
the School Board. If officials were waiting for another clue, the eight-month,
$6,600 Culleoka door debacle ought to
be enough to open their eyes.
•The School Board should rescind its
silly gag rule on construction matters
and appoint a committee to review the
entire unit school renovation project.
There is a growing chorus alleging poor
design, poor execution and overcharging in construction at the unit schools,
all of which was supposed to have been
completed 10 months ago. The committee should investigate the complaints,
find out what’s left to be done, determine
who should pay for problems and then
report to the School Board and the public. Someone needs to ensure taxpayers
that $6,600 in Culleoka isn’t just the tip
of a miserable iceberg.
•Daniels’ glaring conflict of interest
must not be allowed to continue. He
previously agreed not to vote on any
issue involving payment to SSOE, but
then he voted to keep the board from
discussing construction changes.
A School Board chairman’s only
allegiance should be to children and
the citizens who fund schools through
taxation. He should be an advocate for
them at all times, ensuring that we get
the best possible schools for the least
possible expense. Daniels’ remarks
make it clear that his priorities—at
least when it comes to construction—lie
elsewhere.
•It’s high time for both the County
Commission and the School Board to
adopt strong ethics policies that clearly
define what constitutes a conflict of
interest and then enforce those policies.
Daniels has plenty of company when it
comes to potential conflicts of interest
on our elected boards—his are not even
the most obvious.
At a time when Tennesseans’ trust
in government has hit rock bottom,
Maury County’s elected officials need to
remember that the doors of public favor
can always swing both ways.
(Oct. 15, 2006)
The Tennessee Press
AWARDS
FROM PAGE 3
CMYK
LOCAL FEATURES
1. The Portland Leader.
“Stories are well written. Photos put
the icing on the cake. Great staff-written
stories and photos. Nice mix of local
features and news.”
John Latham
5. Mt. Juliet News
1. Southern Standard, McMinnville.
“The top winners were close, but the
Southern Standard took first because of
its apparent ability to take local people &
make national stories, or to take national
stories & people to make it local news
& features. This paper also shone for
its successful attempts to feature ‘the
rest of the story,’ from a minister’s wife
on trial for murdering her husband to a
local resident who traveled to Africa to
police officers disgruntled about new
policies. Good inside columns, features
about local happenings & a variety of
topics. Nice layouts, too.”
City – Steve Marion, Dave Gentry,
Gayle Page
AUGUST 2007
•Golden Press Card (chosen
from all Awards of Excellence)
J.J. Stambaugh, News Sentinel, Knoxville, “Homeless, not hopeless”
1. News Sentinel, Knoxville.
“The engaging feature approach is
applied to all stories from conception
to writing and photography to design.
You draw me into each story and then
deliver on your promise.”
3. The Tennessean, Nashville – Nicole
Keiper, Vivi Hoang, Jim Myers
RON SCHAMING | THE COURIER, SAVANNAH
Schaming
First place award
Best news photo
The Courier, Savannah
County firefighters commiserate over the loss of Bruton Branch’s vital fire hall and firefighting equipment.
(June 15, 2006)
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 5
Time to muzzle Justice Department dogs of war
BY TERRY HOLLAHAN
Wouldn’t it be nice
to write contracts
with your vendors
and include fuzzy,
confusing stipulations? Then you
could accuse the
vendors of violating
the contract, setting
whatever penalty
Hollahan
you wanted. In the
business world those vendors wouldn’t
come back, but in health care it’s a different world.
The settlement last month by Tenet
Healthcare Corp. with the federal Department of Justice may, just may, herald the end of an 11-year quest by federal
prosecutors to put the thumb screws to
large health care companies.
It began under the Clinton administration by career prosecutors and took
on a disturbing formula. Dig through
the thousands of pages of Medicare
regulations and find a way to accuse a
hospital or drug company of fraud, hold
out for a settlement and then crow about
serving the public good.
First place award
That’s essentially what happened with
the two biggest hospital companies. By
the time the feds were through with
Nashville-based HCA Inc., the company
had paid out roughly $3 billion. Tenet,
owner of two hospitals in the Memphis
market, cried uncle at about $2 billion.
Tenet also saw more than $20 billion in
share value disappear.
And with Medicare still about half
the business, both companies must get
back in line for more.
To be fair, there are a number of
Americans who believe that health care
companies must somehow be on the
take. Most people encounter a hospital
maybe once every 15 years, and then
only for a few days. It’s impossible to
comprehend how it costs hundreds of
millions of dollars a year to staff and
equip such a facility, just so it’s ready for
that occasional encounter.When an MRI
costs $5,000 it’s not just the equipment,
Awards - 17
News Sentinel reporter wins 2007 SPJ Golden Press Card Award
“Every section is appealing. The
pictures and the packaging add much.
It’s obvious that this staff looks for the
best way to tell each story, and that
feature approach does much to draw
readers in.”
– Donna Ryder, Chris Menees, Mike
Hutchens, Glenda Caudle
5. The Oak Ridger, Oak Ridge
Best Single Feature
1. Monroe County Advocate & Democrat, Sweetwater – Joe Gettinger, “The
Lord chose us.”
“This is a story of importance to the
community, and what an opportunity
(to get to interview Ms. Upton). The
lead could have been much stronger.
Maybe start off with highest impact
graph – on the first day of her junior year
The Tennessee Press
AUGUST 2007
but the 1,000 trained specialists, nurses
and technicians waiting to respond.
Likewise, when a person looks at the
tiny pill in his hand, he doesn’t see the
million dollars it took to create that
miracle.
Instead, people see a three-day hospital bill for $40,000 and are certain that
it’s a scam. An entire class of lawyers
reinforces that idea on TV commercials.
So when prosecutors claim fraud, most
people applaud it—even as they take the
medicine that sustains their life.
Federal prosecutors in Memphis have
gone to the opposite extreme and strive
to educate local providers on how to
avoid legal problems.
Elsewhere, much of the vigor seems
to have been drained in the prosecution ranks, and it seems to date to the
moment that Chattanooga’s charity
hospital, Erlanger Medical Center, was
forced to pay $40 million. Many thought
that was too much.
Let’s hope we are at the turning point
where government workers realize
their serving the public good doesn’t
mean tormenting businesses that also
serve the public.
(Aug. 11-17, 2006)
BNP 3
ANTHONY DAKE | THE DAILY POST-ATHENIAN, ATHENS
Alvin Ellis, pastor of Mt. Cumberland Church near
Englewood, looks at the damage inflicted by recent
vandalism. (July 25, 2006)
Dake
First place award
Best news photo
Group III - Dailies
The Daily Post-Athenian, Athens
Deadline/spot news reporting
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence—Edward Lee
Pitts, Ashley Rowland, Chattanooga
Times Free Press
Award of Merit—Brian Lazenby, Ian
Berry, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Under 25,000
Award of Excellence—Jeff Farrell,
The Mountain Press
Daily Times
Ridger
Non-dailies
Award of Excellence—Gary Nelson,
General reporting
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence—Ginny LaRoe,
Dave Flessner, Chattanooga Times
Free Press
Award of Merit—Ashley Rowland,
Under 25,000
Award of Excellence— John Huotari,
The Oak Ridger
Award of Merit—Lesli Bales-Sherrod,
Ridger
Non-dailies
Award of Excellence—Jim Dossett,
LaFollette Press
Award of Merit—Michael R. Moser,
Third place—Jack Neely, Metro
Pulse
Features
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence—Emily Berry,
Award of Merit—Kristi L. Nelson,
Third place—Ashley Rowland, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Honorable mention—Mary W. Constantine, News Sentinel, Knoxville
Under 25,000
Award of Excellence— Kara Covington, The Daily Times, Maryville
Times, Maryville
Honorable mention—Lesli BalesSherrod, The Daily Times, Maryville
Non-dailies
Award of Merit—Jason Davis, LaFollette Press
Third place—Krista Richmond, Crossville Chronicle
Honorable mention—Lance Cole-
man, Blount Today
Series/package/project writing
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence—J. J. Stambaugh, NewsSentinel, Knoxville
Award of Merit—Andrew Eder, Erin
Chapin, News Sentinel, Knoxville
Third place—Dave Flessner, Jan
Galetta, Emily Berry, Ann Braly, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Honorable mention—Carly Harrington, News Sentinel, Knoxville
Under 25,000
Award of Excellence—Marcus
Fitzsimmons, The Daily Times,
Maryville
Award of Merit—Bonny C. Millard,
Third place—Iva J. Butler, Anna C.
Irwin The Daily Times, Maryville
Non-dailies
Award of Excellence—Becky Blanton, Linda Brewer, Kevin Burcham, The
News-Herald, Lenoir City
Award of Merit—MichaelThomason,
The Advocate-Democrat, Sweetwater
Third place—Susan Sharp, LaFollette Press
Investigative reporting
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence— Hayes Hickman and CynthiaYeldell, News Sentinel,
Knoxville
Award of Merit—J. J. Stambaugh,
Third place—Pam Sohn, Chattanooga
Times Free Press
Honorable mention—Dave Flessner,
Pam Sohn, Chattanooga Times Free
Press
Under 25,000
Award of Excellence—Lesli BalesSherrod, The Daily Times. Maryville
Third place—Rick Laney, The Daily
Times, Maryville
Non-dailies
Award of Excellence— Jason Davis,
LaFollette Press
Award of Merit—Leslie Wylie, Metro
Pulse
Sports reporting
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence—Mike Strange,
Award of Merit—Darren Epps,
Gentry Estes, David Paschall, Mark
Weidmer, Wesley Rucker, Chattanooga
Times Free Press
Under 25,000
Award of Merit—Leonard Butts, The
Times, Maryville
Non-dailies
Award of Excellence—Stefan Cooper, Blount Today
Award of Merit—Stefan Cooper,
Blount Today
Third place—Stefan Cooper, Blount
Today
Editorial writing
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence—Lee Anderson, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Award of Merit—Harry Austin, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Under 25,000
No entries in this category
Non-dailies
Award of Excellence— Michael R.
Moser, Crossville Chronicle
Third place—Jason Davis, LaFollette
Press
Honorable mention—Jim Dossett,
LaFollette Press
Personal columns
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence—Mark Kennedy, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Award of Merit—Sam Venable, News
Sentinel, Knoxville
Third place—Mary Fortune, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Under 25,000
Award of Merit—Amanda Greever,
Third place—Linda Albert, The Daily
Times, Maryville
Non-dailies
Award of Excellence—Frank Cagle,
Metro Pulse
Award of Merit—Gary Nelson,
Third place—Michael R. Moser,
Reviews/criticism
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence—Betsy Pickle,
Award of Merit—Trevor Higgins,
Under 25,000
Greever, The Daily Times, Maryville
Non-dailies
Award of Excellence—Kevin Crowe,
MetroPulse
Headline writing
(No distinction
as to circulation)
Award of Excellence—David Goddard, The Daily Times, Maryville
Award of Merit—Jamie Bumpus,
Third place—Suzanne Foree Neal,
H o n o r a b l e m e n t i o n — M a rcus Fitzsimmons, The Daily Times,
Maryville
Page one design, newspapers
25,000+ circulation
Martin, News Sentinel, Knoxville
Award of Merit—Rick Moore, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Third place—Lin Parker, Chattanooga
Times Free Press
Under 25,000
Award of Excellence—David Goddard, Richard Dodson, The Daily Times,
Maryville
Non-dailies
Award of Excellence—Tessa Bright,
Blount Today
Inside page design
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence—Melanie Horton, News Sentinel, Knoxville
Award of Merit—Sara Jackson, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Third place—Amanda Martin, News
Sentinel, Knoxville
Under 25,000
Award of Merit— Amanda Greever,
Third place—Kara Covington, The
Non-dailies
Award of Excellence—Krista Richmond, Crossville Chronicle
Informational graphic,
newspapers
Award of Merit—Rey Pineda, News
Sentinel, Knoxville
Art illustration, newspapers
SEE SPJ, PAGE 18
First place award
Best single ad
Groups I & II - Non-dailies
Overton County News, Livingston
Darren Oliver
(March 15, 2006)
CMYK
4 - Awards
Board approves fifth group
for 2008 State Press Contests
A major change in the State Press
Contests divisions has been approved
by the TPA Board of Directors for the
2008 UT-TPA State Press Contests.
The contests will have five divisions,
instead of four, and the divisions will
be based on total weekly paid circulation.
Total weekly paid circulation is calculated by the number of days published
each week multiplied by the paid circulation figure listed in the Tennessee
Newspaper Directory. If a separate
daily, Saturday and/or Sunday figure
is listed, then each figure will be used
in the calculation.
The divisions no longer will be established by daily and non-daily criteria,
and that means larger non-dailies
publishing more than once a week will
be competing with the smallest dailies
in the new division three.
The new divisions are as follows:
Group One: Paid combined weekly
circulation of 5,000 or less
Group Two: Paid combined weekly
circulation of 5,001 to 15,000
Group Three: Paid combined weekly
Group Four: Paid combined weekly
Group Five: Paid combined weekly
circulation of 200,001 and up
Evaluating the contest divisions has
been an issue the Contests Committee
has attempted to address for many
years. At the Feb. 7 TPA Board of Directors meeting, the Board charged the
Contests Committee, the chairman of
which was Chris Fletcher, editor, The
Daily Herald, to consider the divisions
and to make a recommendation to the
board. This change, approved by the
TPA Board on June 28, is the result of
that direction. For all divisions, except
the fifth, it means fewer newspapers will
be competing against each other. The
fifth division will still hold the state’s
largest dailies—the same group of eight
newspapers that formerly competed as
Group Four.
The newly appointed chairman of
the Contests Committee is Victor Parkins of The Milan Mirror-Exchange.
Suggestions regarding the State Press
Contests should be sent to him at victor
@milanmirrorexchange.com.
Consult the chart on the TPA Web site,
www.tnpress.com, to see which division
your newspaper will be in for 2008.
CMYK
API follows up on Newspaper Next
Following up on some of its
Newspaper Next-developed tactics
on how to deal with the disruptive
innovation presented by the Internet,
The American Press Institute (API)
is holding a seminar aimed at smaller
market newspapers—“Inter net
Strategies for Community Markets”—
Sept. 17 through 19 at API headquarters
in Reston, Va.
The seminar is geared toward newspaper managers who have decision-making responsibility for online content,
business management, revenue, marketing or citizen-participation efforts.
First place award
Best single ad
Groups III & IV - Dailies
(Dec. 16, 2006)
Recognizing that cost is a prohibitive
factor for many papers at which the
seminar is directed, API is offering
weekly newspapers a chance to attend
at a reduced rate of $875 a person. To
receive the discount, one should use the
code WKLY when registering online.
The registration site is www.americanpressinstitute.org/07/Internet/.
For more information, one should
contact seminar moderator Mary
Peskin, API’s associate director, at
(703) 715-336 or mpeskin@americanpr
essinstitute.org.
No photo of Shannon York,
designer, is available. He is no
longer with the newspaper.
SPJ
FROM PAGE 17
Award of Merit—Laura E. Walker,
Third place—Don Wood, News
Sentinel, Knoxville
Photo illustration, newspapers
Award of Merit—Daryl Sullivan, The
Third place—Jason Davis, LaFollette Press
Honorable mention—Dan Henry,
Deadline photography,
newspapers
25,000+ circulation
Award of Merit—Angela Lewis,
AUGUST 2007
Third place—Michael Patrick, News
Sentinel, Knoxville
Under 25,000
Award of Merit— Joy Kimbrough,
Honorable mention—Joy Kimbrough, The Daily Times, Maryville
Non-dailies
Award of Merit— Michael R. Moser,
Feature photography,
newspapers
25,000+ circulation
Award of Excellence—Kathleen
Greeson, Chattanooga Times Free
Press
Award of Merit—Dan Henry, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Third place—Ashlie White, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Honorable mention—Angela Lewis,
Under 25,000
Third place— Daryl Sullivan,The Daily
Times, Maryville
Non-dailies
Honorable mention— Dwane Wilder,
LaFollette Press
Editorial cartoons, newspapers
Award of Excellence—Bruce Plante,
Work for other media – writing
Third place—Steve Row,TheTennessean, Nashville
Honorable mention—Steve Row,The
Tennessean, Nashville
Work for other media – visuals
Award of Excellence—Jigsha Desai,
Lauren Spuhler, Joe Howell, News
Sentinel, Knoxville
Award of Merit—Jigsha Desai,
Lauren Spuhler, Erin Chapin, Katie Kolt,
All Media – Horace V. Wells, Jr.
Community Service Award
Don Dare and Dave Wignall, WATE-TV,
“Scam alert”
Make ads believable and specific
and exaggerations.
The headline is the most important part of an ad.
“Opportunity.” The second lesson is to be specific.
Research shows that eight out of 10 readers do not
In the context of this advertiser’s two-word headline,
read past the headline of any given ad. You know
“opportunity” means nothing at all. To what kind
from experience that, if a headline doesn’t arouse
of opportunity are they referring? We don’t know,
interest, you simply turn the page.
because they don’t say.
Print is an information medium. That’s why the
Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar once said, “Don’t
best print ads—and their headlines—provide inforbecome a wandering generality. Be a meaningful
mation to readers. It’s as simple as that.
I recently ran across an ad in my files that provides
specific.” The same can be said of advertising.
Legendary copywriter Claude Hopkins wrote, “The
a classic example of what not to do. The headline
weight of an argument may often be multiplied by
shouts, “Unbelievable Opportunity” in big bold type.
Does this headline provide information? No. Does it
making it specific.” To prove his point, he compared
establish credibility for the advertiser? No. Does it John Foust two advertising statements: (1) “Our prices have been
communicate anything of value? No. To understand
reduced, and (2) “Our prices have been reduced by 25
why, let’s take a closer look:
percent.” It’s obvious that the second headline has
“Unbelievable.” When something is exceptionmore impact—because it is specific.
The only way to make “opportunity” work is to use it as
ally good, or exceptionally bad, it is often labeled as being unbelievable. As a sports fan, I’ve heard countless touchdowns, an idea generator and not in a headline. The first step might
home runs and birdie putts described as “unbelievable.” While be to ask, “Opportunity for whom?” or “Opportunity to do
“unbelievable” may be harmless in sports broadcasts, this what?” First, identify a specific target audience. Then figure
word creates more trouble than it’s worth in advertising.
out how that group can benefit from buying that advertiser’s
What does “unbelievable” really mean? Technically speak- product or service.
ing, “un” means “against” or “the opposite of.” That means
Once a specific benefit is identified, the word “opportunity”
that advertisers who use the word “unbelievable” are actually can be dropped. For example, an ad for lakeside homes might
saying, “Don’t believe this ad. It’s filled with lies.” Obviously, evolve from “Unbelievable opportunity” to “Here’s your opthat’s not the message they want to send; but that’s the real portunity to live by the lake”…to “Live by the lake.”
If you’re looking for a guideline to create better advertismeaning.
The first lesson here is to be believable. If you want your ing, consider the opposite of what is represented by the
advertising to have the clear ring of authenticity, if you want words “unbelievable” and “opportunity.” Be believable, and
it to convey information, start by eliminating baseless claims be specific.
Do this, and your ads will be more effective.
The Tennessee Press
AUGUST 2007
FROM PAGE 2
Wasting our money and influence
AWARDS
GENERAL EXCELLENCE
The Erwin Record
GROUP II – Non-dailies
The Standard Banner, Jefferson City
GROUP III – Dailies
GROUP IV – Dailies
MAKE-UP AND APPEARANCE
1. The Courier News, Clinton.
“Design is solid – functional & consistent – Dominant photo for all section
fronts – style carries over to inside pages
– few ugly pages – Question: Why the
wasted space at bottom of page??”
2. Ashland City Times – Matt Anderson, Jennifer Noland
4. The Rogersville Review – Joel
Spears, Brian Vaughn
Henderson
City.
“This paper works hard to make the
most of its resources – Design is clean
and consistent – Head type is used
with care – Photo folks do a good job
of making the most of what’s there
– The paper seems to serve its readers
pretty well.”
3. Crossville Chronicle – Heather
Mullinix
4. Robertson County Times, Springfield – Cindy Kelly, Lisa Boyce
“What distinguishes The Daily News
Journal from the rest is its ease of navigation for the reader. Really enjoyed the
A2 and C2 pages. Still, I would suggest
more thought to skyboxes, such as the
April 26 edition. And dominant art on
inside pages.”
“A summary: They’re kicking *** &
taking names – Clean design, no gimmicks – Everything is functional – Photos
– and photo use – are excellent – It took
brass ***** to put the kid picture on
1A after the storm – Good decision!!
Easily best of class.”
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 4
BY RANDY MACKIN
Editor
The excuse, “But
we’ve always had
a Democratic primary,” is no longer sufficient to
justify holding an
election that is a
waste of money,
that diminishes our
Mackin
influence with state
candidates, that creates lame duck office
holders and forces local candidates to
run on a party ticket with which they
disagree.
Cost is always a factor. With only
some exceptions, the expense of staging a primary election is the same as
paying for the August general. Poll
workers must be compensated, notices
and sample ballots must be published,
people must be paid to work the early
voting machines. Why incur all this expense when a general election in August
would serve the same purpose, and the
state would pick up the tab?
Local primaries are paid for with local
taxpayer dollars. If Perry County did
away with primaries, and held elections
in August when state primaries are
required, the costs associated with the
traditional Democratic primary would
be paid by the state.
The Democratic primary will cost
upwards of $10,000, an estimate based
on figures more than a decade old.
In addition to the waste of taxpayer
dollars, the Democratic primary weakens our influence with candidates
vying for state positions. Consider
these facts:
BNP 1
Copyright 2007 by John Foust. All rights reserved.
E-mail JOHN FOUST for information about his training videos
for ad departments: [email protected].
ALERT
The deadline for the
2008 UT-TPA State Press Contests
is 6 1/2 months away.
Stash those potential winners now
so youʼll be prepared to submit entries
in mid-February.
BRYAN MERRIGAN | LIVINGSTON ENTERPRISE
Merrigan
First place award
Best news photo
Livingston Enterprise
Awards - 3
Rocky Dial with the Livingston Fire Department stands
in front of a fire caused by lightning. (April 4, 2006)
First place award
•In May 2002, the last big Democratic
primary, about 50 percent of the voters
went to the polls; in the county general
election in August, which served only
to rubber-stamp the choices made in
May, a mere 25 percent of the voters
cast ballots.
•Four years earlier, in May 1998, 63
percent of Perry County’s registered
voters spoke in the primary. They face
opposition in August, during state
primaries, and again in November
when they face off against the choice
of the opposing party. If Perry County’s
citizens can muster only a 25 percent
turnout in August, why should state
candidates waste time campaigning
here? We certainly cannot produce
enough votes to make a difference in
district House and Senate races, and
our influence in statewide races is
exponentially diminished.
For years, Perry County has been
ignored by state officials. The donkeys
know that Perry County will vote a
strong Democratic ticket. The elephants
know that our GOP base is so shallow
that it can offer little support.
When Perry County officials complain
that we do not have state funds for roads,
that we do not get our share of grants,
that their pleas to state departments are
ignored and unanswered, why would
they expect anything different?
You may have heard the old expression, “Hold your nose and vote.” A
Democratic primary has, more than
once, forced Republicans to “hold
their nose and run.” In a county that
is still strongly Democratic in its
political leanings, past GOP party
members—both those who voted in
Republican primaries or held positions
in the local Republican party—have felt
it necessary to “run” as Democrat, even
though they were not supportive of the
party. The primary practically forces
everyone interested in local elected
positions to be a Democrat, or at least
pretend to be.
Another reason the Democratic primary should be avoided is the creation
of lame duck office-holders incumbents
who did not win the primary and chose
not to do their job, apparently, as an
act of retaliation. Back in the 1980s,
one local official reported for work on
Sept. 1 and found a backlog; only the
bare minimum had been done since the
incumbent lost in May, and nearly four
months of paperwork greeted the new
office-holder on his first day. An August
election would cut down that potential
dead time to less than a month.
The Town of Linden has already
recognized the value of centralizing
our election process. The aldermen have
approved moving its municipal election
from the usual December to the August
general. While this approval will extend
the lengths of their individual terms
during that first year of transition, the
citizens of the city will no longer be
footing the bill for a municipal election
that draws only a very small fraction of
registered voters.
Local Board of Education seats,
which were once also subject to party
primary, have now been shifted by the
state from May to the August election,
allowing those individuals who wish to
be school board members to run without
party affiliations.
Doing away with a local Democratic
primary will not stop candidates from
declaring a party affiliation. You can
still run as a Democrat, or you can
choose to honor the GOP by running
as a Republican. And independent
candidates will find themselves competing against a long list of hopefuls,
rather than enjoying the luxury of
campaigning against a single Democratic nominee.
How can this change be implemented?
It’s very simple. State law allows parties
to call for a primary. If the Perry County
Democratic Executive Committee does
not call for a primary in 2008, there
will not be one. If either party wishes
to hold a useless election, then let the
party pay the expenses. You can be sure
there are Republicans and independents
in the county who have no interest in
helping foot the bill for a narcissistic
Democratic primary.
Next Tuesday, May 2, 57 counties in
Tennessee will hold local primaries.
Thirty-four of those counties have both
Democratic and Republican primaries
on the same day, apparently because
they have a host of candidates running
from both sides of the aisle. In those
situations, primaries may be necessary
because that county has two strong
political parties.
Also on May 2, 23 counties will hold
single party primaries, 11 of those
Republican. Perry County will be one
of only 12 counties statewide that will
hold only a Democratic primary but not
GOP balloting.
As quaint as an old-fashioned, yellow
dog Democrat primary can be, the time
has come to move beyond the antiquated
practice and make our tax dollars work
more efficiently by combining our local elections with the state-mandated
August general. Perhaps, in the absence
of a Democratic primary, the county
can avoid lame duck office-holders, Republicans disguised as Democrats will
not feel coerced to deny their personal
political convictions, and, maybe, Perry
County’s voters will earn the attention
they deserve from some state candidates
who have found it all too easy in the past
to pretend we did not exist.
(April 26, 2006)
Calling
“The First Amendment is not selfexecuting. We need judges to apply it
and thus breathe life into it.”
Floyd Abrams
Lawyer, 2005
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
18 - Awards
The Tennessee Press
20 - Awards
AUGUST 2007
S
2007 University of Tennessee-Tennessee Press Association
P
A
d
August 2007
Special section
GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARDS
FIRST PLACE WINNERS - UT-TPA STATE PRESS CONTESTS
MEEMAN WINNERS UT-TPA STATE PRESS CONTESTS
CMYK
CMYK
Staff members of newspapers winning first place awards (from left): Front row, Frank Smith
and Skyler Swisher,The Daily Herald, Columbia; Debbie Cash, Herald &Tribune, Jonesborough;
Lesley Hughes, Anthony D. Piercy and Brenda Sparks, The Erwin Record; Kim Cook, Ronnie
Housley and Darren Reese, The Standard Banner, Jefferson City; Katrina Cornwell, The News
Examiner, Gallatin; Richard Esposito, The Oak Ridger, Oak Ridge; and Ron Bridgeman, The
Courier News, Clinton. Middle row, John Henson, The Daily Herald, Columbia; Victor Parkins,
The Milan Mirror-Exchange; Laurie Everett, Mt. Juliet News; Jamia Blazer, The Mountain
Press, Sevierville; Andrea Hopkins, Bristol Herald Courier; Scott Sines, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis; Echo Gaines Denmark, The Leader, Covington; James Webb, Chester County
Independent, Henderson; Randy Mackin, Buffalo River Review, Linden; John Henson, The Daily
Herald, Columbia; Jan Witherspoon, The Portland Leader; Mike Moser, Crossville Chronicle;
and Patricia Zechman, Southern Standard, McMinnville. Back row, Danny Wade, The Humboldt
Chronicle; Shirley Nanney and Ron Park, Carroll County News-Leader, Huntingdon; Richard
Stevens, The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville; Sonya Thompson, The Portland Leader.
Staff members of newspapers winning Edward J.
Meeman Awards for editorials or public service,
from left, front row, Andrea Hopkins, Bristol Herald Courier; Randy Mackin, Buffalo River Review,
Linden; Ron Bridgeman, The Courier News, Clinton; back row, Skyler Swisher, The Daily Herald,
Columbia, and Jamia Blazer, The Mountain Press,
Sevierville.
Newspaper
judges
needed
Aug. 24
in Nashville
FIRST PLACE WINNERS - TAPME CONTEST
Winners of AP writing and photography awards are (from left): Front row, David Melson,Shelbyville Times-Gazette; Jeff Farrell, The Mountain Press,
Sevierville; Larry Aldridge, The Daily Times, Maryville; Chris Menees, Union City Daily Messenger; Brad Schrade, The Tennessean, Nashville; Aaron
Thompson, The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro. Back row, Scott Sines, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, accepting on behalf of Cindy Wolff,
Marlon Morgan, Alan Spearman and Mark Weber; Tyrone Tony Reed, Wendy Isom, Ned Hunter and Lindsay McDonald of The Jackson Sun.
TPA members are needed to judge the Hoosier
State (Indiana) Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest on Friday,
Aug. 24, at the Willis
Conference Center in
Nashville.
We need 45 judges.
They will be able to see
what other newspapers
are doing and take home
some great ideas!
If you can participate,
please contact Robyn
Gentile, member services manager, at (865)
584-5761, ext. 105, or
[email protected].
Representatives of the winners of the 2007 General Excellence Awards (formerly called Sweepstakes Awards) in the UT-TPA State Press
Contests are, from left, Brenda Sparks, The Erwin Record; Kim Cook, The Standard Banner, Jefferson City; Chris Fletcher, The Daily Herald, Columbia; and Scott Sines, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis.
INSIDE
THE ERWIN RECORD
Group I
THE STANDARD BANNER, JEFFERSON CITY
Group II
THE DAILY HERALD, COLUMBIA
Group III
THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL, MEMPHIS
Group IV
AWARDS LUNCHEON
UT-TPAAWARDS LIST
2
3-16
NEWS PHOTOS
EDITORIALS
3-5
3-6
FEATURE PHOTOS
6-8
PERSONAL COLUMNS 7-9,12
SPORTS PHOTOS 9, 13-15
HUMOR COLUMNS 13-16
BEST ADS
TAPME AWARDS
17-18
19
AUGUST 2007
CMYK
UT, TPA announce State Press Contests winners
Newspapers across Tennessee that
won top awards in the University of
Tennessee-Tennessee Press Association
2007 State Press Contests were recognized July 20 in Nashville.
The Erwin Record, The Standard Banner, Jefferson City, The Daily Herald,
Columbia, and The Commercial Appeal,
Memphis, won the General Excellence
top awards at the association’s annual
luncheon at the Sheraton Music City hotel. Chris Fletcher, Contests Committee
chairman, presided at the luncheon.
Hank Dye, vice president of public
and govermental relations for the UT
system, presented awards, and Charles
Primm of the same UT office announced
the winners. Amy Blakely handled a
PowerPoint presentation. Karen Collins
and Amy Rummel assisted Dye.
TPA President Pauline D. Sherrer, Crossville Chronicle, presented
Fletcher an engraved clock.
Henry A. Stokes, 2006-07 TPA president, announced the recipient of the
2007 President’s Award, Michae Williams, The Paris Post-Intelligencer,
chairman of the Freedom of Information Committee, and Elenora E.
Edwards, Clinton, managing editor of
The Tennesse Press. Williams was not
present. Edwards accepted the award.
General Excellence honors are based
on total points accumulated for all
award categories.
The Erwin record garnered 38; The
Standard Banner, 45; The Daily Herald,
49; and The Commercial Appeal, 81.
This was the fifth year in a row that
The Erwin Record won the General
Excellence Award. It was the first win
for The Standard Banner and The Daily
Herald and the second time for The
Commercial Appeal.
The Hoosier State (Indiana) Press
Association judged a total of 1,374
contest entries from 77 association
newspapers.
Awards were given in four circulation
categories, large and small non-dailies
and large and small dailies.
UT has co-sponsored the annual
contest since 1940.
UT’s Edward J. Meeman Foundation
awarded $100 prizes to eight newspapers
for their accomplishments in editorial
writing and public service journalism.
The foundation was established in 1968
at UT to fund the contests as well as
journalism scholarships.
Newspapers receiving Meeman
Awards were The Commercial Appeal
and The Mountain Press, Sevierville, for
EDITOR’S NOTE
We are printing in this Awards
Section all the winning entries
in the following categories: Best
Single Editorial, Best Personal
Column, Best Personal Humor
Column, Best News Photograph,
Best Feature Photograph, Best
Sports Photograph and Best
Single Ad. Most of the photos
were run very large and in color
on the newspaper pages. We
regret that we are unable to print
the winning photos in color, as
large and in the same compelling
manner as when they were
originally published. —Elenora E.
Edwards, managing editor
TPA President Pauline D. Sherrer presents an engraved clock to
Contests Chairman Chris Fletcher, The Daily Herald, Columbia.
public service; Bristol Herald Courier,
Memphis Business Journal, The Daily
Herald and the Buffalo River Review,
Linden, best single editorial; and The
Herald-News, Dayton, and The Courier
News, Clinton, editorials.
The Commercial Appeal also earned
the most first place honors with 11.
It won for make-up and appearance,
community lifestyles, Sunday edition,
editorials, best personal column, best
personal humor column, best news
reporting, investigative reporting,
public service, best sports photograph
and best special issue or section.
The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro,
won five first place awards, for make-up
and appearance, local features, editorials, best spot news story and headline
writing.
Winners of four first-place awards:
•Memphis Business Journal, for best
single editorial, best personal column,
best education reporting and investigative reporting, and
•The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville,
for best single feature, investigative
reporting, best sports photograph and
best special issue or section.
Winners of three first place awards:
•The Erwin Record, for best spot news
story, headline writing and promotion
of newspapers
•The Standard Banner, for make-up
and appearance, best single feature
and headline writing, and
•The Tennessean, Nashville, for
sports writing, best spot news story
and best news photograph.
Other first place award winners:
We want your news!
Got an exciting bit of news about innovations at your newspaper, or
has someone at the paper received an award? A promotion?
The Tennessee Press managing editor wants to be sure we don’t miss
anything important about you. Then we can tell your friends at other
newspapers.
If you have news for us, contact the M.E. at (865) 457-5459 or
[email protected].
•Chester County Independent, Henderson, sports writing and best feature
photograph
•News Sentinel, Knoxville, local
features and best single feature
•Southern Standard, McMinnville,
local features and sports writing
•The Courier News, make-up and
appearance and editorials
•The Herald-News, editorials and best
•The Mountain Press, public service
and best feature photograph
•The News Examiner, Gallatin, best
news reporting and best special issue
or section
•Ashland City Times, community
lifestyles
•Bristol Herald Courier, best single
editorial
•Buffalo River Review, best single
editorial
•Carroll County News-Leader, Huntingdon, best news reporting
•Citizen Tribune, Morristown, community lifestyles
•Crossville Chronicle, best feature
photograph
•Herald & Tribune, Jonesborough,
best personal humor column
•Livingston Enterprise, best news
photograph
•Monroe County Advocate & Democrat, Sweetwater, best single feature
•Mt. Juliet News, public service
•News-Herald, Lenoir City, best spot
Dye
news story
•Overton County News, Livingston,
best single advertisement
•The Cordova Beacon, best personal
column
•The Courier, Savannah, best news
photograph
•The Daily News, Memphis, promotion
of newspapers
•The Daily Post-Athenian, best news
photograph
•The Daily Times, Maryville, sports
writing
•The Elk Valley Times, Fayetteville,
community lifestyles
•The Humboldt Chronicle, best special
issue or section
•The Leader, Covington, public
service
•The Milan Mirror-Exchange, best
education reporting
•The Millington Star, best sports
photograph
•The Oak Ridger, best personal
column;
•The Portland Leader, local features
•The Wilson Post, Lebanon, best sports
photograph
•Union City Daily Messenger, best
•Weakley County Press, Martin,
investigative reporting.
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 3
Awards luncheon
factoids
•Total number of attendees: 154
•Member newspapers represented: 49, with 135 attendees
•Dailies: 20, with 57 attendees
•Non-dailies: 29, with 78 attendees
•Member paper with the most
attendees: The Daily Herald,
Columbia, with 11
Jan Witherspoon, The Portland Leader, with Hank Dye of UT and the
newspaper’s first place award. UT has provided photos similar to this one
to all first place winners.
The Tennessee Press
AUGUST 2007
Awards - 19
TAPME recognizes top newspaper writers, photographers
The Tennessee Associated Press
Managing Editors (TAPME) presented
annual writing and photography awards
in a ceremony July 20 in Nashville.
Chad Roedemeier, news editor for
the Associated Press in Tennessee, announced awards, which were presented
by Bureau Chief Adam Yeomans. He
was assisted by Delila Vassar, administrative assistant.
Before presentation of the awards,
Yeomans thanked the Tennessee Press
Association for its cooperation in setting up and coordinating both awards
events. The TPA awards luncheon followed the AP event.
He introduced Vassar; Roedemeier,
saying the news editor oversees 16
AP representatives in four cities; and
Mark Humphrey, who handled the
PowerPoint presentation and whom
Yeomans described as one of the top
photographers in the country. Humphrey had just celebrated 25 years with
AP in Tennessee.
Yeomans talked about new initiatives
of AP such as AP Exchange. He pointed
out that the News Sentinel, Knoxville,
and The Commercial Appeal, Memphis,
now have streaming video, two of the
first newspapers in the nation to do
so. He said AP had decided against a
rate increase for the second consecutive year.
The AP Web site for the state is www.
ap.org/tennessee.
Following is the list of TAPME award
winners.
DIVISION I
WRITING
1. Staff, The Tennessean, Nashville,
“Deadly Winds”
2. Mike O’Neal and Lauren Gregory,
ChattanoogaTimes Free Press, “School
Bus Crash Kills 3”
3. Halimah Abdullha and Richard
Locker, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, “Corker Conquers”
Features reporting
1. Cindy Wolff,The Commercial Appeal,
Memphis, “Tragedy in a Small Town”
2. Leon Alligood, The Tennessean,
Nashville, “Messages From Heaven”
3. Ashley Rowland, ChattanoogaTimes
Free Press, “New Hope for Hajer”
1. Marion W. Morgan,The Commercial
Appeal, Memphis, “Back to Bruceton”
2. Gary Parris,The Commercial Appeal,
Memphis, “T-Head Tells All”
3. Bryan Mullen, The Tennessean,
Nashville, “Coach, Players See Eye
to Eye”
Business news
1. Sheila Wissner and Janell Ross, The
Tennessean, Nashville, “1 Point”
2. Tom Charlier, The Commercial
3. Dale Flessner, Chattanooga Times
Free Press, “TVA in Transition”
Larry Aldridge, The Daily Times, Maryville,
left, receiving award from Adam Yeomans
Chris Menees, Union City Daily Messenger,
getting congratulations from Adam Yeomans
Malcolm Law Investigative Reporting—Brad Schrade, The Tennessean,
Nashville, “Tennessee Highway Patrol”
PHOTOGRAPHY
Nashville, “Saving a Life”
2. Jae S. Lee, The Tennessean, Nashville, “Tornado Hug”
3. Lance Murphy, The Commercial
Appeal, Memphis, “Fire”
Feature photography
1. Cathy Clarke, News Sentinel, Knoxville, “Mad Cat”
2. Mike Brown, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, “1st Day of School”
3. Dipti Vaidya, The Tennessean,
Nashville, “Mule Man”
Sports photography
1. Mark Weber, The Commercial
Appeal, Memphis, “Hiked up and
Honked off”
2. Dan Henry, ChattanoogaTimes Free
Press, “Soccer Win and Loss”
3. Earl Neikirk, Bristol Herald Courier,
“Don Forget to Brush”
Photojournalism
Appeal, Memphis, “9/11 Five Years
Later”
Appeal, Memphis, “Living Visions”
Nashville
2. Dan Henry, Chattanooga Times
Free Press
Appeal, Memphis
DIVISION II
WRITING
1. Staff, The Jackson Sun, “Cruel
Day”
2. Staff, The Jackson Sun, “Hit and
Run”
3. Andrew Tran and Wendy Isom, The
Jackson Sun, “Slain Minister’s Wife Is
Suspect”
Features reporting
1. Pete Wickham, The Jackson Sun,
“Blue Suede Birthday”
2. Skyler Swisher, William Bowers
and Thomas Munro, The Daily Herald,
Columbia, “The Lost Night”
3. Tyrone Tony Reed Jr., The Jackson
Sun, “Prayer Is the Key”
1. David Brandt, The Jackson Sun,
“Growing Pains”
2. John Bice, The Daily Times,
Maryville, “Learning to Crawl”
Business news
“Diamond Jaxx”
“Kirklands Remodels Its Frame of
Mind”
3. Greg Menza, The Daily Herald,
Columbia, “UGGLA is Big Business”
Malcolm Law Investigative Reporting—Dan Morris, The Jackson Sun,
“Jackson’s Legal Fees”
PHOTOGRAPHY
Maryville, “Bear’ly Escaped”
2. John A. Gillis, The Daily News
Journal, Murfreesboro, “Remembering a Hero”
Maryville, “Explosive Fire”
Feature photography
Journal, Murfreesboro, “Life Tastes
Good”
Maryville, “Pretty in Pink”
3. Joy Kimbrough, The Daily Times,
Maryville, “Princess for a Day”
Sports photography
Maryville, “Season Ended”
Journal, Murfreesboro, “Joy and
Brad Schrade, The Tennessean, accepting a Malcom
Law Memorial Award from Adam Yeomans
Pain”
Sun, “Patrick Willis”
Photojournalism
2. Karen Kraft,The Daily News Journal,
Murfreesboro, “Gone up in Smoke”
Journal, Murfreesboro, “Lady Raider
Champs”
body of work
Maryville
Sun
Maryville
DIVISION III
WRITING
1. David Melson, Shelbyville TimesGazette, “Kidnap Victim”
2. Jeff Farrell, The Mountain Press,
Sevierville, “Jail Time”
3. Staff, The Mountain Press, Sevierville, “Primary Election Coverage”
Features reporting
1. Jeff Farrell,The Mountain Press, Sevierville, “End of the Schmutzer Era”
2. John Carney, Shelbyville TimesGazette, “Veteran Remembers”
3. Gail Crutchfield,The Mountain Press,
Sevierville, “Remember Marge”
1. Mike Hutchens, Union City Daily
Messenger, “Purple Reign”
2. Lionel Green, The Mountain Press,
Sevierville, “Flesh and Blood”
3. Gary Johnson, Shelbyville TimesGazette, “Trice Leaves Lasting Impact”
Business news
1. Chris Rimel, State Gazette, Dyersburg, “Yorkville Telephone Sale”
2. Clint Confehr, Shelbyville TimesGazette, “Part of West End Comes to
Shelbyville”
3. Candice Grimm, The Mountain
Press, Sevierville, “Lock it up”
Malcolm Law Investigative Reporting—Clint Confehr and David Melson,
Shelbyville Times-Gazette, “Estrada
Death”
PHOTOGRAPHY
Democrat, “Tender Care”
Sevierville, “Fully Involved”
Messenger, “Rescued”
Feature photography
Democrat, “Misty Sunshine”
Sevierville, “When Memories Fade”
Democrat, “Tip-Toe Shot”
Sports photography
1. Danny Palmer, Shelbyville TimesGazette, “Safe at Home, Etc.”
Democrat, “Wildcat Wild”
3. David Fuzzell, Union City Daily
Messenger, “Photo Series”
Photojournalism
1. Danny Palmer, Shelbyville TimesGazette, “Rivalry at Rocky Top”
2. Danny Palmer, Shelbyville TimesGazette, “Titans Open Season”
3. David Melson, Shelbyville TimesGazette, “Sorghum Squeezin’”
Messenger
Sevierville
3. Kay Rose, Shelbyville Times-Gazette
From the start
“Our founders didn’t think it a good
idea for the press and state to gang up
on public opinion. So they added to
the constitution a Bill of Rights whose
First Amendment was intended to be
a firewall between the politicians who
hold power and the press that should
hold power accountable.”
Bill Moyers, broadcast journalist, 2004
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
2 - Awards

awards - Tennessee Press Association

Transcription

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