The Winchester Sun was named Kentucky’s best small newspaper Friday after placing first in the daily class 1 category at the Kentucky Press Association Excellence in Journalism contest.

The award was based on an overall score calculated from a variety of first-, second- and third-place awards given to numerous current and former Sun staffers and contributors.

While we truly think this award is a reflection of our staff’s dedication and hard work, we couldn’t celebrate this accomplishment without thanking our community and giving them a little credit too.

We often share our philosophy that a newspaper is only as good as its community — or rather as good as its community allows it to be — and that rings not truer than when it comes to this award. This accomplishment would not be possible without the Winchester-Clark County community, our readers, our subscribers, our advertisers and our contributors.

First, we need to pay respects to our incredible local columnists.

The Sun has a truly dedicated army of contributors who provide a fresh variety of content each week for our readers.

This year, we entered content from columnists Erin Smith, who writes the weekly “Seeking Connection” column; Chuck Witt, who provides weekly political and social commentary; and the Sun’s longest-tenured columnist, Jean Brody, who has provided her “The View From the Mountains” column for more than 25 years. The trio swept the category for best columnist, which is an impressive feat, and a true testament to the quality of local contributors we have in our community.

In addition the Witt, Brody and Smith, we also run a variety of other local columns including everything from lifestyle, health, animal/pets, agriculture, cooking and more.

When it comes to content written or produced by our own staff, we are thankful to have a team of dedicated and experienced journalists on our staff. We are passionate about providing timely, relevant stories, but, we couldn’t do our jobs without our community.

It is our job to tell your stories. And without your willingness to share those stories and to provide us valuable information, we couldn’t do what we do.

We thank you for letting us tell your stories — the good and the bad.

Without a community that promotes and supports local businesses, celebrates the accomplishments of its young people, gathers for events like fairs, festival and parades, we wouldn’t have the good news to share.

Without law enforcement, local government and a judicial system that work as transparently as possible, we wouldn’t be able to share the stories about crime, trends and other happenings that affect our community.

And without our readers, subscribers and advertisers, we wouldn’t be in business.

So, while we celebrate our awards, we must also celebrate those who made it possible.

 

Editorials represent the opinion of the newspaper’s editorial board. The board is comprised of publisher Michael Caldwell and Bluegrass Newsmedia editors Whitney Leggett and Ben Kleppinger. To inquire about a meeting with the board, contact Caldwell at 759-0095.