The Cherokee Scout, the primary news source for Cherokee County residents since 1889, won Best Overall Design in the 2020 Community Newspapers Inc. Better Newspapers Contest.
Judges Mark Johnson and Dr. Kyser Lough from the University of Georgia’s Grady School of Journalism said this about the Scout’s design, which was created by Publisher & Editor David Brown in 2004 and updated in 2019. Composition Manager Christy Guthrie is in charge of layout for most of the pages.
“Inside pages showed showed as much care as the section fronts – photographs were used well throughout these editions to both advance stories and provide visually interesting pages. The use of ragged-right text was initially seen as being unsual, but it worked in the overall design. Good use of white space and design elements to make an interesting layout, instead of just gray walls of text. Stories are easy to distinguish from one another and lots of interesting inside content.”
“It’s always nice to be recognized,” Brown said, “but the best recognition comes every week, when local residents pick up a copy of the Scout and spend their valuable time with it. Thanks for reading.”