Herald-Banner takes top top honors at annual Best of CNHI awards
MONTGOMERY, Alabama – Citing its 'robust local news coverage, strong editorials and coverage of local topics,' judges this week honored the Herald-Banner as the top award-winner in the annual Best of CNHI journalism awards for 2024.
The Herald-Banner was named Division II Newspaper of the Year. CNHI manages more than 70 newspapers – from weekly to daily – in 25 states crisscrossing the country. Finalists were the Crossville (Tennessee) Chronicle and the Lebanon (Indiana) Reporter.
Judges applauded the Herald-Banner for overcoming challenges encountered by newsrooms across the country – 'placing its focus on its own community for the answers and it shows through concentration on being a hyper-local newspaper emphasizing comprehensive coverage.'
Kent Miller, who came aboard as editor of Herald-Banner Publications in August of 2023, pointed to the 'C' in community journalism as his driving philosophy for the newspaper.
'Newspapers like the Herald-Banner need to aspire to be the storytellers and record keepers for their community,' he said. 'Community newspapers do what other news outlets can't or won't do – cover a community.'
Miller continued, noting the state of the newspaper industry that has seen countless communities and small towns across the country left without local representation.
'It creates a desert instead of a snapshot when a local newspaper goes under and it leaves the people of those smaller towns without a voice,' he said. 'People don't realize what they've lost [when a paper closes its doors] until it's too late.'
Judges also singled out the Herald-Banner for 'making great use of the available news hole by making sure almost every column inch is filled with relevant local content.' And unlike many smaller newspapers, judges lauded the Herald-Banner for 'producing hard-hitting, top-flight local editorials in every edition [and] publishing an editorial page that stimulates community conversations and serves as a marketplace of ideas.'
Herald-Banner publisher Lisa Chappell credited the staff for working tirelessly for the community.
'We do this because we believe in true journalism and that our community deserves to have a local newspaper. To be recognized and celebrated by our peers is just icing on the cake,' Chappell said. "This newsroom is small but mighty. They do an excellent job and I am proud of each one of them. They publish three newspapers and a quarterly magazine as a four-person team and they do it with heart. They have earned their recognition as Newspaper of the Year.
Along with the Newspaper of the Year Award, individual staffers also were recognized for outstanding work done in 2024.
Miller was recognized as Editorial Writer of the Year, Warren Morrison was named Designer of the Year for the second year in a row and David Claybourn was awarded Photographer of the Year with judges particularly taking notice of his front page solar eclipse photo that ran last spring.
The four honors earned by the Herald-Banner set a high-water mark for CNHI as the most captured in a single year by one newspaper. Additionally, Claybourn was a finalist for Sportswriter of the Year and regular freelancer Laurie White King was a finalist for Photographer of the Year.
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