The Echo wins 9 GPA awards, including 4 first-place honors

The Oglethorpe Echo earned nine section and individual awards in the Georgia Press Association’s annual Better Newspaper Contest for its work in 2025.

That gives The Echo a total of 41 GPA awards in four full years of its partnership with the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

“When we started the new era of The Oglethorpe Echo, the two primary goals were to save the 147-year-old newspaper and to give UGA’s Grady College students a laboratory to gain real-life journalism experience,” said Dink NeSmith, chairman emeritus of The Oglethorpe Echo Legacy Inc. “Thanks to community support and an alliance with Grady, the results have been phenomenal. We are proud of our student journalists, and we are grateful to all who have helped The Oglethorpe Echo achieve its growing success.”

The Echo was reinvented after longtime owner and publisher Ralph Maxwell transferred the newspaper to a nonprofit in November 2021 in collaboration with NeSmith.

Since then, more than 200 UGA students have gained journalism experience serving as the editorial staff of the 152-year-old newspaper, often serving only four-month stints as either part of the capstone classes during fall and spring semesters or as an intern for the summer and winter breaks.

“The experience that our UGA journalism majors gain as The Echo staff is beyond measure,” said assistant editor and instructor Amanda Bright. “Through this partnership, students learn how to do community journalism and often discover a passion for local news that changes their life path.”

Four former Echo reporters also placed in the contest this year: Katie Tucker for The Macon Telegraph (News Photograph, second place; Spot News Photo, third place; Best Web Photo, first place; Multimedia Journalism, second place, Feature Writing, second place), Landon Todd for The Northeast Georgian (Sports Photograph, second and third place; Sports Feature Photograph, second place); Jim Bass for Appen Media Group (Education Writing, first place; Feature Writing, third place); and Wade Cheek for The Clayton Tribune (Sports Feature Story, second place).

There were 477 total awards presented at the GPA Annual Conference on Jekyll Island on June 12. Those awards were spread across 44 categories and went to 73 newspapers in the editorial contest, with 2,273 total entries submitted. Judging was done by members of the Oklahoma and Louisiana Press Association.

Here's the breakdown of 2025 honors for The Oglethorpe Echo:

First place

Feature Photograph: Alex Perri