The Cherokee Scout, the primary news source for Cherokee County residents since 1889, has been honored with the 2020 Best of CNI Award for Division A, the company’s largest newspapers.
Best of CNI is the highest honor given by Community Newspapers Inc., which owns the Scout and two dozen other newspapers across the Southeast. The Scout has won Best of CNI – which is based on advertising, circulation and editorial success – nine times in the last 11 years and has been at least a finalist 14 times since 2003.
Alan NeSmith, chairman of CNI, stopped by the Scout office in downtown Murphy on Friday afternoon to share the good news with the staff. CNI’s home office is in Athens, Ga.
“The best award to win is the one you never see coming, and this certainly qualifies,” Publisher David Brown said. “We were forced to make many difficult changes in 2018 and 2019, then COVID-19 struck in 2020, so for our staff to come together and produce a successful year despite these challenges is just fantastic. Everybody on board – now and then – played a large part in helping make this happen.”
Brown was also pleased that one of the Scout’s affiliate newspapers that he oversees as regional publisher, The Graham Star in nearby Robbinsville, won Best of CNI for Division B. The publisher and editor of The Star is Kevin Hensley, a former sports writer for the Scout.
At the same time, The Northeast Georgian in Cornelia was a finalist for Best of CNI in Division A. The editor of that newspaper is former Scout editor Matthew Osborne.
“It makes me proud to see Scout alumni continue to have success in their careers,” Brown said. “Each of them helped kicked the Scout up more than a notch.”
The Scout also won Best Overall Design in CNI’s Better Newspapers Contest, which was announced earlier this year.
Elsewhere, the N.C. Press Association’s 2021 Better News & Journalism Contest has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.