Chronicle moves up to medium weekly – brings home 15 Arkansas Press Awards

Photo/ Terri Cobb, Arkansas Press Association Spring River Chronicle Publisher Tammy Curtis and Editor Mack Thompson accepted 15 awards June 25 at the Tri-State Press Convention in Memphis. The Chronicle also took home a second place in the Medium Weekly Division for General Excellence.

Despite pandemic, Sharp County’s only locally owned newspaper, the Spring River Chronicle has increased subscriptions for the last three years, again proving the importance of targeted , researched local news to the Spring River area. As a result, the Chronicle was moved up to the “Medium Weekly” category by the Arkansas Press Association, based on circulation.
This meant the small local newspaper had to compete against much larger circulation weeklies in larger cities for awards in news, layout and photography at the Arkansas Press Association’s 2022 Tri-State Press Convention held June 23-26 in Memphis. Two of the awards won by the Chronicle were combined with all weekly papers within the state.
The move up was very intimidating to the newspaper, that has won 111 awards since purchasing the paper in 2016. They have been able to claim the coveted General Excellence distinctions the last two years and second place the first year the paper was taken over by Tammy Curtis. The move up did little to dampen their wins.
The Spring River Chronicle brought home 15 Awards including four first place wins including: Curtis’ Best News Story, “Highland School District sued for abuse of a handicapped child”; Series Reporting, Davidlee Stansbury murder coverage; Humorous Column, “Anti Hallmark it please” and best Picture Page/Photo Essay for the Daddy Daughter Dance.
The paper also claimed seven second place wins, including Beat Reporting for Police and Court Beat, Best Feature Sports Story, “Rebels welcome back Coach Wiggins”, Best Graphic Design Portfolio, and Best Single Feature Photo “Veterans Honored at vet service” and two freelancer awards to Angelia Roberts and Andrea Bruner.
Three Third Place wins including, Mack Thompson’s Humor Column “Eulogy to Common Sense”; Best News Story “Lawsuit contends collusion between SID and ALC”; and Coverage of Education as well as an Honorable Mention for Single News Photo, “Crowd enjoys Cave City Watermelon Festival.”
This year, despite having moved up, the Chronicle took home second place in General Excellence. The Carroll County News, a newspaper in Berryville with a staff of around took home the first place award. to the The Chronicle’s has a staff of two.
Also, the only other locally owned newspaper in the area, The Pacesetting Times brought home 17 awards in the “Smaller Weekly” classification, including Best Front Page by Carrie Trivitt, and Best Sports Photo by Bobby Stapleton. The Pacesetting Times is based in Horseshoe Bend and owned by Karen Sherrell.

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