The Rockdale News garnered 14 awards in this year's 2011 Georgia Press Association's Better Newspaper contest.

The Rockdale News won first place in overall General Excellence for Division I. It also won first place Local News Coverage, third place Editorial Page, and third place Layout and Design.

It swept the top two spots for Special Issues with the Back in the Day special section winning first place and Voter's Guide special section winning second. The paper's website, www.rockdalenews.com, won second place in the Newspaper Website category.

This year's individual winners in the Rockdale News for Division I were Michelle Kim, first place for Hard News Writing, Bryan Fazio, first place for Sports Writing, David McCoy, first place for Humorous Column, and Dale Neseman, first place for Editorial Cartoonist.

William Brawley was awarded first place for Best Online News Project.

Jessica Smith and Michelle Kim won second place in Feature Writing, and Ric Latarski won second place for Serious Column.

The awards were announced at the GPA's 125th annual convention and Better Newspaper Newspaper Contest banquet at Jekyll Island on the evening of June 10.

The Rockdale News, owned by Morris Multimedia, was started in 2009.