Courier-Times

Division

George Willoughby, Taylor Easter

Little Boots, Baby Rockets

Kelly Snow

Editorials 2025-26

In general, the editorials do a good job of striking a fair tone. They encourage readers to be reasonable and raise up opportunities to be better as a community, and examples of doing such.

Ben McCormick

Karrie Obie’s home run record season

This was a well-written deep dive into a moment, just skillfully presented. Terrific lead, and it really gave context to a big moment for a player and a team.

Ben McCormick

The Courier-Times Sports 2026

Excellent sports coverage provided including game coverage, team previews, and more. There's a good mix of photos, and I like the addition of the Athletes of the Week.

Ben McCormick and Staff

2025 Fall Sports Preview

The community is lucky to have such a comprehensive preview.

Ben McCormick and Staff

2025 Fall Sports Preview

The community is lucky to have such a comprehensive preview.

Ben McCormick

Father Time conquers the Appalachian Trail

What could have been a ho-hum summary of someone else's trip is instead a well-crafted narrative packed with specific details that takes readers along on the adventure. Starting with his mom and circling back to her at the end is a well-chosen framework as well.

Ben McCormick

Home Run Queen

Kelly Snow

Mr. Sam’s 100th birthday

Jessie Butner

Ledes 2025-26

I like the descriptive writing in these ledes, but they would have benefitted from being more than one paragraph. Keep the words, add more breaks.

George Willoughby, Kelly Snow

Civil rights complaint against sheriff, deputies

Jessie Butner

The end of an era: Cole’s Pharmacy

An homage at the end of the line for a longtime local business, the story raises the issue of pharmacy benefit managers putting the screws to independent pharmacies, many of which are forced to close, leaving their customers without a drugstore in the neighborhood

Ben McCormick

The Spice of Sports

Kelly Snow

CJF America

A really good amount of original reporting while crediting other outlets that have also reported on the story. It really get lost in the weeds of detail at a few key points though, and an edit to tighten it up would have worked wonders.

George Willoughby

‘It takes a community’ — Person High School band

Story shows how an important part of community was brought back. Good uses of multiple perspectives of those involved.

Kelly Snow

Person County GOP outdoor convention confusion

Good mix of sources to try and sort out the story.

Staff

The Courier-Times August 2025

The top two finishers have similar breadth of coverage for the communities, including many varied stories, notification, agendas, etc. What set this apart was it's lede investigative stories on fraud and civil rights complaints.

Ginger Carroll, Jan Ross

Graduation Section 2025

This is very well done, I really enjoyed it.

Ginger Carroll

Hot Sauce

Ginger Carroll

Winterfest

Ginger Carroll, Jan Ross

Salute our Veterans