Press Association honors Covington News

The Covington News captured five first-place awards and won second place in general excellence, an overall quality award, in its division in the 2012 Georgia Press Association awards contest. The newspaper won a total of 13 awards.

First-place awards were earned in local news (for overall news coverage), investigative reporting, photo illustration, informational graphics and magazine product (Newcomer’s Guide).

"It’s always a great honor when your peers honor you. The awards are a testimony to the hard work of our newsroom staff,’’ said T. Pat Cavanaugh, general manager of The News. "We’re very proud of our first-place award in local news. After all, that’s what we are all about.’’

The News won both first-place and third-place awards in investigative reporting. First place went to a selection of Gabriel Khouli’s stories that included coverage of campaign accusations and travel expenditures of public officials, and Amber Pittman won third place for her coverage of issues surrounding prostitution complaints and investigations.

Sports editor Bryan Fazio won two awards, second place for sports column and third place for a sports photo.

The newspaper’s website won a second-place award.

List of winners:

• Local news (overall coverage), 1st place, The Covington News

• Investigative reporting, 1st place, The Covington News, Gabriel Khouli

• Photo illustration, 1st place, The Covington News, Amber Pitman

• Informational graphic, 1st place, The Covington News, Josh Briggs

• Magazine product, 1st place, The Covington News, Newcomer’s Guide

• General excellence, 2nd place, The Covington News

• Sports column, 2nd place, The Covington News, Bryan Fazio

• Newspaper website, 2nd place, The Covington News

• Religion coverage, 3rd place, The Covington News, Nhi Ho