| Rank | Newspaper Name | City | Author | Title | Judge's Note |
| General News Reporting | |||||
| 1st | The Bladen Journal | Elizabethtown | Rhonda Griffin | Wedding Day Heartbreak | This could have been just another car wreck story. Rhonda dug deep and brought us the real story of a terrible, terrible loss. Terrific job. |
| 2nd | The State Port Pilot | Southport | Lisa Stites | Firm Probes Fallen Girder | Bridge safety is a concern for everyone and this is a story the public needed to hear. |
| 3rd | The Carrboro Citizen | Carrboro | Kirk Ross | Rebecca Clark Dies | Rebecca Clark wasn't an elected official, but she was a very important person whose own history spanned the entire civil rights movement. This was a nice job telling her story. |
| News Feature Writing | |||||
| 1st | The State Port Pilot | Southport | Jonathan Spiers | Police Officer's Family Responds | Great job relaying difficult story in clear, concise way. Sound reporting and compelling storytelling. |
| 2nd | The Wake Weekly | Wake Forest | Leslie Rudd | Wayward Wallaby | Nice treatment of an unusual story. Great use of storytelling! |
| 3rd | The State Port Pilot | Southport | Hilary Snow | Dad's Return | Nice use of quotes, comments from child. |
| Feature Writing | |||||
| 1st | Triangle Business Journal | Raleigh | Lee Weisbecker & Amanda Jones Hoyle | Crisis Fallout | Great work breaking down local impact. Solid reporting keeps readers interested. Nice job. |
| 2nd | The State Port Pilot | Southport | Jonathan Spiers | Their Own Memorial | New face on Memorial Day feature. Nice work. |
| 3rd | The State Port Pilot | Southport | Hilary Snow | In The Event | Solid entry. Good read. |
| Profile Feature | |||||
| 1st | Montgomery Herald | Troy | Linda Beaulieu | Styling Across Seven Decades | Judging based on originality & this story was original AND great. |
| 2nd | The Stokes News | King | Leslie Bray Evans | At 88, Betty Scales… | Nice story about a nice woman. |
| 3rd | The Clayton News-Star | Clayton | Jim Green | Comets' Champion | Just like the lead says, this story was special. |
| News Enterprise Reporting | |||||
| 1st | News@Norman | Denver | Ken Fortenberry | Cash-Strapped Mchenry | Too many newspapers only report on their congressmen when they send out a press release. Ken Fortenberry takes off the gloves and gives us a real scoop. |
| 2nd | The State Port Pilot | Southport | Staff | Troubled Economy | You can watch the national news and see the problems in the economy. This in-depth series takes it a notch further to show the impacts on a single community. |
| 3rd | The Wake Weekly | Wake Forest | Leslie Rudd | State Of Disrepair | Its important sometimes for the newspaper to be a friend to someone who seemingly has none. That's what Leslie Rudd does here. |
| Investigative Reporting | |||||
| 1st | Triangle Business Journal | Raleigh | Lee Weisbecker & Chris Baysden | Why We Hurt | Great localization of data. Story hits home with individual family spot lighted. |
| 2nd | Tabor-Loris Tribune | Tabor City | Deuce Niven | Sen R.C. Soles | Persistence in coverage! Way to discover story & follow through. |
| 3rd | News@Norman | Denver | Ken Fortenberry | Sheriff Lied | Courage shown to confront local public official--especially a person the writer appears to have liked. |
| Sports News Reporting | |||||
| 1st | Cherokee Scout | Murphy | Joseph Chilton | Swain Kryptonite | Very detailed coverage of the game, especially enjoyed the comparisons to the weather. |
| 2nd | The Stokes News | King | Jeremy Moorhouse | Golden Performance | Good use of quotes to give coverage a personal feel. |
| 3rd | Thomasville Times | Thomasville | Zach Kepley | Not So Golden | |
| Sports Feature Writing | |||||
| 1st | The Wake Weekly | Wake Forest | Matt Morgan | Excellent analysis of what makes each of these stadiums special. Loved it even though I've never heard of these places. | |
| 2nd | Cherokee Scout | Murphy | Mark Townsend | Just a unique story and situation. Great writing style. | |
| 3rd | The Carrboro Citizen | Carrboro | Beth Mechum | Very interesting story. | |
| General News Photography | |||||
| 1st | The State Port Pilot | Southport | Jim Harper | Hope For Warriors | This picture has it all: great composition, great emotion and it tells the whole story. |
| 2nd | The Chatham News | Siler City | Jeff Davis | Standoff On Alston Bridge Road | Eye-catching photo captures the tension of the climactic moment in this story. Great shot. |
| 3rd | Tabor-Loris Tribune | Tabor City | Deuce Niven | Reflections | Excellent composition & color. Eye-catching and clever. |
| Feature Photography | |||||
| 1st | The Chatham News | Siler City | Jeff Davis | Better Watch Out | Stellar attention to the background in this shot makes this a fantastic composition. Really attention grabbing. |
| 2nd | Clay County Progress | Hayesville | Tina Teesateskie | Whoo Hoo | Captures emotion beautifully - also great attention to detail. Tells the whole story and is funny to boot! |
| 3rd | The State Port Pilot | Southport | Jonathan Spiers | Small Fry Fishing Tournament | Photos are all well-composed. Photographer did a good job of selecting detail shots along with wide shots. |
| Sports Photography | |||||
| 1st | The Chatham News | Siler City | Jeff Davis | One Vicious Hit | Ouch! Great photo. Nice job stopping the action. I would have really liked to see this in color. |
| 2nd | The Wake Weekly | Wake Forest | Matt Morgan | Still Alive | Nice, closeup, clear image. I like the girls expressions. |
| 3rd | The Stokes News | King | Jeremy Moorhouse | Ironman Challenge | Nice camera placement and I like the color photo. It's a little soft focused around the edges but works overall and grabs the readers attention. |
| Photo Page | |||||
| 1st | The Chatham News | Siler City | Jeff Davis | Now, That's Gotta Hurt | Capturing the expression on her face makes the page. That should have been the biggest picture. |
| 2nd | The Chatham News | Siler City | Jeff Davis | Car Chase | Great breaking news coverage, but many of the photos look the same. |
| 3rd | The Smoky Mountain Times | Bryson City | Teddy Greene, Clay Wilson & Aaron Morgan | Heritage Festival 2009 | Captured different actions and emotions well. |
| Best Video | |||||
| 1st | Cherokee Scout | Murphy | Scott Wallace | High Waters Not Impeding | |
| Editorials | |||||
| 1st | Cherokee Scout | Murphy | Staff | Public; Stiffer; Truth | All the editorials which placed were excellent, but this collection stood out. In a world where more is (mistakenly) good, this staff is writing clear, crisp editorials that are compact, to the point and raise questions for the community good. |
| 2nd | The State Port Pilot | Southport | Lisa Stites | Negative Politics | Good work at this newspaper made it hard to decide, but felt it deserved two placings. "Negative" was excellent comment on Obama backlash that stood out. "Records" shows how reckless government can be with records. |
| 3rd | The State Port Pilot | Southport | Hilary Snow | Board Failed | It's *almost* a tie for second (sorry!) but this is a good, clear prosecution of government when it goes amuck in overreacting to events. "State workers" also makes good clear argument. This newspaper is fortunate to have TWO good editorial writers. |
| Lighter Columns | |||||
| 1st | Cherokee Scout | Murphy | David Brown | Masters; Dogs; Churches | Clear winner. Good use of humor, touching stories. Nice job. |
| 2nd | The Bladen Journal | Elizabethtown | W. Curt Vincent | Story Of Lifetime In 6 Words | Judging in 6 words: columnist finds way to impress judge. Good job! |
| 3rd | Montgomery Herald | Troy | Linda Beaulieu | It Couldn't; No Way; Acts Of | I bet readers really enjoy these folksy columns. Good job! |
| Serious Columns | |||||
| 1st | The State Port Pilot | Southport | Terry Pope | Living Simply | Tight category, but Terry Pope's work stood out with its readability and focus on local issues. |
| 2nd | The Smoky Mountain Times | Bryson City | Lee Zion | No One Will Call; At Last; Lessons From | Strong entry. Columns appeal to local readers, a strong plus. |
| 3rd | Triangle Business Journal | Raleigh | Dale Gibson | My Turn | Nice job taking hard stance. |
| Sports Columns | |||||
| 1st | Thomasville Times | Thomasville | Eliot Duke | Duke does a great job here showing what sports is all about - connecting real life with the games we love. | |
| 2nd | The State Port Pilot | Southport | Bret Mccormick | It's good to see some of the behind-the-scenes stuff of football programs, McCormick paints a good picture of this. | |
| 3rd | Cherokee Scout | Murphy | Mark Townsend | Townsend's writing style is easy to follow & enjoyable to read. | |
| Headline Writing | |||||
| 1st | The State Port Pilot | Southport | Suzi Drake | Show Me; On The Right; Dog Listener | Cute headlines w/o being silly - good use of art to make headlines stand out. |
| 2nd | The Wake Weekly | Wake Forest | David Leone | Shalom Amigos | Nice work. |
| 3rd | The Clayton News-Star | Clayton | Rick Mercier | Fabricated; Cat; Is There | Clever headlines. |
| General Excellence Web Site | |||||
| 1st | The Carrboro Citizen | Carrboro | Kirk Ross | Www.Carrborocitizen.Com | |
| 2nd | The State Port Pilot | Southport | Staff | Www.Stateportpilot.Com | |
| 3rd | The Clayton News-Star | Clayton | Staff | Www.Yourcns.Com | |
| Appearance and Design | |||||
| 1st | The State Port Pilot | Southport | Staff | July 1 & 8, 2009 | Great photos, clean lay-out and a very exciting paper! |
| 2nd | The Wake Weekly | Wake Forest | Staff | Jul 9 & 16, 2009 | Very clean lay-out, easy to read. |
| 3rd | The Smoky Mountain Times | Bryson City | Staff | July 2 & 9, 2009 | |
| Editorial Page | |||||
| 1st | News@Norman | Denver | Ken Fortenberry | Our Opinion | Ken Fortenberry is fearless. These are hard hitting local editorials that pull no punches. They deal with issues that are vital to the community. Kudos on a great job. |
| 2nd | The Wake Weekly | Wake Forest | Staff | Apr 2, 16 & 23, 2009 | Solid editorial section. The piece on year-round school was especially good. Nice selection of letters to the editor. |
| 3rd | The State Port Pilot | Southport | Staff | April 1, 22 & 29 | Another nicely done editorial section with well thought out local editorials and a vibrant letter to the editor section. I might consider tightening up the "Tide & Time" feature. |
| Sports Coverage | |||||
| 1st | The Wake Weekly | Wake Forest | Staff | Nov 6 & 27, 2008 | A good sports section includes good features, columns and layout, as well as scores and game reports. This section has all of those. Tighten up the writing just a bit and it will be truly terrific. |
| 2nd | Clay County Progress | Hayesville | Ann Ferguson | Nov 6 & 13, 2008 | This is a solid little sports section, covering the big events like a state championship, but not overlooking the small things like youth soccer. |
| 3rd | The Chronicle | Winston-Salem | Anthony Hill | Nov 13 & 20, 2008 | Anthony Hill covers a lot of ground to bring all this sports coverage to his readers. It's a very nice job. |
| Use of Photographs | |||||
| 1st | The Chatham News | Siler City | Staff | Mar 5 & 12, 2009 | A classic case of photography as art! Each photo invites the reader to go around the next curve of the road, the stream, or through a knothole. Fabulous! |
| 2nd | The Wake Weekly | Wake Forest | Staff | Dec 11 & 18, 2008 | Photos used give a great community feel. |
| 3rd | The State Port Pilot | Southport | Staff | Dec 3 & 10, 2009 | Interesting photos. |
| News Coverage | |||||
| 1st | The State Port Pilot | Southport | Staff | May 6 & 20, 2009 | Great paper. Front page to back page good photos, great news stories. |
| 2nd | Cherokee Scout | Murphy | Staff | May 13 & 20, 2009 | Great mixture of news, photos, good writing and reporting. |
| 3rd | News@Norman | Denver | Staff | News@Norman | Great news coverage. Very important issue on sheriff's office. |
| Special Section | |||||
| 1st | Clay County Progress | Hayesville | Staff | Graduation 2009 | Great job. You should be proud of how you recognized the seniors. |
| 2nd | The State Port Pilot | Southport | Staff | St. James 10th Anniversary | Sharp. Good job on celebrating a milestone. |
| 3rd | Clay County Progress | Hayesville | Staff | All I Want For Christmas | Love the photos and quotes from the kids. |
