Newspaper wins 13 editorial awards from press association, places in General Excellence at annual convention on Jekyll
Winning 13 editorial honors, The Clayton Tribune claimed third place in General Excellence in the Georgia Press Association’s (GPA) 2026 Better Newspaper Contest at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel on June 12.
To earn third in general excellence in the weekly C classification, the Tribune received points to an overall total against other Georgia newspapers of like circulation numbers.
“It always is an honor to be recognized by fellow journalists for producing award-winning content in the Tribune’s print and digital formats,” said Tribune Publisher Enoch Autry about the newspaper’s 2025 entries that were judged by members of the Oklahoma and Louisiana press associations.
“For 129 years, the Tribune staffs has been fortunate to cover some of the state’s best people in the amazing county of Rabun,” Autry said. “We appreciate our community’s continued commitment to the Tribune.”
At the 138th GPA annual convention, Autry and Sports Editor Wesley Branch combined for three awards, while Autry captured five additional individual editorial awards.
Former sports editor, Wade Cheek, won two awards and News Editor Megan Horn won one award.
The Tribune staff claimed second place for Page One and second place for Headline Writing. Both winning entries required three submissions.
Autry and Branch won second place for Sports Section or Pages. They also took second and third places for Special Sports Section.
The second place for special sports section was for the Tribune’s University of Georgia football season preview in August with a focus on Rabun County standout Gunner Stockton, the Bulldogs starting quarterback. The third-place honor was for the Tribune’s Fall Sports Preview that highlighted the season’s athletics at Rabun County High School, Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School and Tallulah Falls School.
Autry won second place for Photo Essay and third places for Sports Photograph, Sports Feature Photograph, Serious Column and the weekly division’s Center for Integrity in News Reporting Award of Excellence.
The second-place photo essay by Autry was for images snapped at the 2025 Rabun Ramble 10K and 5K event held annually in Lakemont on Independence Day weekend. The sports photograph was of Benj Trodgon during the 25th annual Mountain Air Classic wakeboarding competition in August 2025 on Lake Burton.
The sports feature photo was of Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School football players celebrating an Eagles touchdown on the sideline during a home 42-0 win against Ambassador Christian in September 2025.
Three separate columns were submitted for Autry’s entry in the serious column category. Those columns were “School of journalism takes hands-on trips to mountains” (March 27, 2025); “’Do Your Best’ motto will help you reach ‘favorite’ ranking” (June 26, 2025) and “Fireflies not the only things that light up a person’s life” (July 17, 2025).
Autry submitted one article for the Center for Integrity in News Reporting Award of Excellence. The article was headlined “No ethics violation, but ‘poor choices’” with a subhead of “Ethics committee: ‘City would benefit greatly if Mayor Cannon would resign; Mayor ponders defamation suit” from April 24, 2025. The article was written about former Clayton Mayor Kurt Cannon prior to him resigning as mayor.
Cheek won second places for Sports Photograph and Sports Feature Story. The winning sports photograph by Cheek was a photo of Todd Weaver struggling to stay on his bucking horse during the Bar W Rodeo Company’s event at the Rabun Arena in July 2025.
The sports feature story by Cheek included three submitted articles for the entry. His articles were “The Consummate Coach: Remembering Sonny Smart; Former RCHS football coach, father of UGA’s Kirby Smart, passes away after fall at 76” (Jan. 9, 2025); “Davis retires at Rabun head football coach” (March 6, 2025) and “Native returns as top Cat; State championship winner Gillespie takes over gridiron helm” (March 13, 2025).
Horn won second place for the weekly division’s Center for Integrity in News Reporting Award of Excellence in the first year the organization offered a state-level prize in Georgia. Hunter Riggall of the Marietta Daily Journal won first place in the daily division and a $5,000 prize as the overall winner in the category.
The entry from Horn included seven articles and an editorial about Georgia House Bill 581 concerning the possible implementation of a floating Homestead. Municipalities and the school board received public input on whether to opt in or out of HB581. The House bill establishes a base amount allowed to be collected on homesteaded property and limits annual increases in those property taxes to the rate of inflation.
The Tribune competed in Division C which is for weekly newspapers that have a circulation between 2,000 and 3,799.
A total of 477 awards were presented in 44 categories to 73 newspapers in the editorial contest. There were 2,273 total entries in the contest.
The advertising awards winners also were honored at the banquet. There were 102 awards presented in 18 categories to 19 newspapers in the ad contest. There were 514 total entries in the advertising contest.