The Nashville Ledger has won three first-place awards in the annual Tennessee Press Association’s annual statewide competition.

The Ledger’s sports coverage won best overall with entries from Terry McCormick and Tom Wood. Wood also won for investigative reporting (“One more crack in scrambled supply chain”) and, along with Joe Morris and Lucas Hendrickson, for education reporting.

The Knoxville Ledger was named the state’s top newspaper for the second consecutive year in its circulation category – the same category as the Nashville Ledger – and the third time in five years with first-place awards going to Joe Rogers (Best Personal Column, “Hard to keep up with the latest offending brands”), Nancy Henderson for special issue (“What draws us in") and Henderson and Morris for best business coverage.

“We have such wonderful, talented writers, photographers and editors across all three newspapers, and it’s a thrill to see them get the recognition they deserve,” says Lyle Graves associate publisher and executive editor of the Nashville Ledger, Knoxville Ledger and Hamilton County Herald. “We’re especially pleased with back-to-back wins for the Knoxville Ledger as the best in Tennessee in its category.”

The Nashville Ledger earned top honors in 2018 (the first year weekly newspapers became eligible) and 2022, while the Knoxville Ledger took top honors in 2020, 2023 and, now, 2024.

Nashville writers also took four second-place awards (special issue, business coverage, editorials, best sports photograph) and two thirds (investigative reporting, headline writing).

Knoxville writers had three second-place finishes (sports coverage, single feature and headline writing, and five third-place prizes (makeup and appearance, graphics and/or illustrations, editorials, sports writing and single feature.

The Hamilton County Herald, also part of the Ledger group, won top honors in two categories – local features and single feature – on entries written by David Laprad. Best single feature was a profile of 76-year-old attorney Pamela O’Dwyer (“This gun is still for hire”).

The Herald also had a second (best feature photo) and a third (headline writing).