Georgia Press Association awards

I just about spit up water on my keyboard reading this!

 

Yeah, I don't think the special olympics gives out that many ribbons.

 

The GPA awards deal is always held at some beach spot. For the last few years, it's been in Savannah. Couple of years ago, we went to Ponte Vedra. Why? So the north Georgia/metro ATL folks can have a week of vacation at the beach.
And do not get me started on the awards. Some were deserved. Others? Like awards to folks who don't get quotes or can't write the score the right way (with winning team first, for starters)? Kansas Press Assoc. judged this year, I believe. Makes me wonder about the quality of papers on a similar level in the Jayhawk State.
(In case you're wondering, I got a couple more to add to the stash, somewhere in a storage unit in the Southeast U.S.).

 

I stand corrected: I needed four fingers to count the number of newspapers represented in the large newspaper category. Guess not everyone gets a ribbon after all.

 

I know of a writer who bemoaned the large number of high school classifications in our state and felt it cheapened the championships and all-state teams because there are so many classifications.
Back in the day, he worked at a paper in Georgia. I wonder if he felt that way about the number of classifications in the GPA come award time.

 

But the smallest daily class. The bottom four are all non-dailies. E is for twice- and thrice-weeklies, the other three are weeklies. I don't know that there needs to be three weekly categories, but as there's at least one in just about every county, and the state's got 159 counties...

There's also a lot more awards than this. The PDF's on the Web site for those who are curious.

 

And when you get down to it, only people from Georgia or Alabama actually want to be in Panama City. Florida residents understand it sucks and reeks of poor white trashdom, and head to Destin or points east and south.

 

There's 159 counties in Georgia. That means nearly 159 legal organs in the state (I think less than a handful of counties have their own paper). So you're looking at about 150 or more papers in the state, and that's just the GPA members.
And I don't get the number of divisions, either, but they didn't ask for my input.