Columbus Ledger-Enquirer wins 3 categories at Georgia newspaper awards
The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer took home several honors in the 2024 Georgia Press Association awards, which were announced June 20.
The publication’s accomplishments were headlined by three first-place finishes: Mark Rice won first place in the education writing and investigative reporting categories. Kelby Hutchison won first place in the breaking news writing category.
In addition to these first-place finishes, the publication had two runner-up placements. Mark finished second in breaking news writing, and Mike Haskey finished second place in the multimedia journalism category.
The work that these three did during 2024 to garner recognition was extensive, but each had journalism that stood out.
One of Rice’s investigative stories from 2024 showed readers the severity and fallout of fights that occurred within the Carver High School football team, an incident that prompted charges and firings of people on the coaching staff.
“Mark Rice’s aggressive use of public records requests following up on two significant community news stories uncovered information that his readers otherwise would not have known,” a judge assessing work for the awards said of Rice’s reporting. “Digging deeper gave readers a much fuller picture of what happened in both controversial stories - fights on a high school football team and the sordid tale of an elected official’s repeated sexual harassment of an employee.
“Readers count on their local newspaper for this kind of accountability reporting, and Mark delivered. Good job!”
Hutchison provided quick yet thorough coverage in 2024 when Columbus police shot someone during an attempted traffic stop, providing on-the-scene reporting. The fallout from the incident is still unfolding, as officers involved in the incident have been charged.
A judge assessing Hutchison’s work in breaking news said his journalism delivered “what you want when you have breaking news,” adding that Hutchison “clearly laid out” as much information as possible.
Haskey has always brought our subscribers another level of depth with his visuals, and he did just that in 2024 when he provided coverage of a veteran who was finally receiving a proper burial.
Tommy Lee Harvey Jr., who died in 2017, had been placed in a pauper grave in Columbus, but was given a funeral service with military honors last year in Alabama. Mike’s great work captured the emotions and the thoughts of those in attendance.
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This story was originally published June 25, 2025 at 10:50 AM.