Herald wins top journalism award

The Green Eyeshade awards recognize outstanding journalism in 11 Southeastern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.
The contest includes all forms of reporting — television, radio, magazines, online journalism and newspapers. The top award is selected from first place award winners in the various categories. There were over 600 entries this year, according to the SPJ.
The Herald’s win is the first time in four years the “Best of Show” award went to a Georgia journalist. The award was won by the Miami (FL) Herald last year and the Birimingham (AL) News the year before. The award’s last appearance in Georgia was for a radio series done in 2004 by Georgia Public Radio about the Lee Arrendale Prison in Alto.
The Green Eyeshade award is named for the visors that used to be worn by editors and newspaper typesetters to prevent glare as they handled type and edited copy.
The SPJ is one of the nation’s oldest journalism organizations, founded in 1909 as the Sigma Delta Chi. It works to encourage a free press, high standards and First Amendment freedoms.

OPINION WRITING AWARD
In addition to the Green Eyeshade award, Buffington was also recently named a Golden Dozen Award winner for opinion writing by the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors.
The annual contest honors the top 12 opinion articles written by weekly newspaper editors from the U.S., Canada and England.
Buffington has won the award a total of five times. His 2008 entry was for a column entitled, “Time to stop fighting the Civil War.”
In addition to serving as editor of The Herald, Buffington is also co-publisher of Mainstreet Newspapers, Inc., family owned newspaper publishing firm that operates weekly newspapers and related websites in Northeast Georgia