Ledger-Enquirer wins awards for 2020 coverage, including top young journalist of Georgia
The Ledger-Enquirer was honored for its 2020 coverage by the Georgia Press Association at the organization’s annual convention, including an award for top young journalist in the state.
In total, the L-E won five awards:
- First place for Online News Project - staff
- Best Use of Multimedia Journalism - Mike Haskey
- First place for Feature Writing - Tim Chitwood
- Second place for Enterprise Story - Chitwood
- Emerging Journalist - Nick Wooten
The Emerging Journalist award honors a journalist in Georgia younger than 30 with less than five years of professional experience who demonstrates a commitment to excellence and a high standard of ethics. Six stories and a letter of recommendation were required for the application.
Wooten, 26, came to the Ledger-Enquirer in 2019 from the Shreveport Times. He is the newspaper’s Southern Trends and Culture reporter, but shifted his coverage to the COVID-19 pandemic and statewide elections in 2020. Some of his articles submitted for the award included accountability pieces on the Department of Public Health’s COVID data and Gov. Brian Kemp’s actions, a profile of the West Central Health District leader and a long-form story about the local LGBTQ community.
“I’m thankful for the GPA’s recognition,” Wooten said. “I, and my colleagues, worked under extraordinary circumstances in 2020. I want to thank our staff, our sources, our readers and everyone else who continues to support our local journalism efforts.”
Haskey is one of two visual journalists on staff, and has worked at the L-E since 1987. Judges noted his videography was of excellent quality and content.
“Superb visuals and production quality combined with interesting subjects pushes this entry to the top of the field,” the comments noted.
A 38-year veteran of the L-E, Chitwood covers crime, courts and investigative work. His entries spanned from a deep-dive into the Columbus Police Department’s case file of a 2019 quadruple murder to a profile on popular defense attorney Stacey Jackson.
“This submission shows Chitwood’s ability to tell a range of stories in an engaging way. The subject matter is interesting and the writing is solid,” judging comments said.
All staff members worked on a multimedia project in spring 2020 honoring the victims of the Beauregard, Alabama tornado. The project, published on the first anniversary of the disaster, included feature stories for each man, woman and child killed.
“2020 presented challenges that none of us had ever dealt with before and I could not be more proud of our staff for persevering and producing excellent local journalism along the way,” senior editor Lauren Gorla said. “We thank our readers and the Columbus community for being there every step.”
