Seven-Time Winners!

For the fifth consecutive year, and the seventh time in the past eight years, the Carroll County News has been awarded first place for general excellence in the Arkansas Press Association’s annual Better Newspaper Editorial Contest.

In addition to the overall honor, the newspaper also won 23 individual awards, including six first-place honors.

The Carroll County News took first place for general excellence — which is awarded on a point system based on individual awards — among the state’s medium-circulation weekly newspapers in 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

The contest’s divisions were revamped this year, with the Carroll County News competing against all newspapers with circulations of 1,200 or less, regardless of publishing frequency.

The awards were presented at a luncheon Saturday, June 29, that concluded the press association’s annual convention, held this year at the Embassy Suites Red Wolf Convention Center in Jonesboro.

The Carroll County News is the only general excellence winner from 2023 to win again in 2024 under the new format.

“We’re honored and humbled to be recognized again,” said Scott Loftis, who serves as editor and publisher of the Carroll County News and is also majority owner of the newspaper. “We don’t do what we do to win awards, but it is one way we measure our performance in carrying out the true mission of this paper, which is to keep the citizens of Carroll County informed about what’s going on in their community. We’ve won this award seven times now, but this one is special because it’s based on work we did in 2023, after we bought the paper and made it completely locally owned. The business side of the operation is time-consuming but it was important to me that we kept the same high standards for our news product. These awards are evidence that we were successful in that.”

In addition to the general excellence honor, Loftis won first-place awards for feature story, business story and sports column. Reporter Rick Harvey won first place for education story. Photographer David Bell, who owns a minority share of the newspaper, won first place for news feature photo and freelance photographer Charles Chappell won first place for sports action photo.

“I’m thankful for everyone who contributed such quality work,” said Loftis, a member of the press association’s board of directors. “I should point out that we have a much smaller staff now than we did even a few years ago. We only have two fulltime employees, including myself. Credit for these awards shouldn’t just go to editors, reporters and photographers. Without our office staff — Julia Borkowski, Melody Strodtman and Rhonda Worrall, in alphabetical order — and our driver, Mary Kay Abbott, none of this would be possible. I’m so grateful for all of their contributions and for their patience and understanding as we work together to make sure Carroll County still has a newspaper — and a good one. Most of all, I’m grateful for our community and for the support they’ve shown us. Now, I say this every year, but it’s true: It’s time to get back to work, because what’s better than seven? Eight!”