Winners to be announced at Senior Leadership Conference
The prize is named for the late Benjamin Carmage Walls whose newspaper career spanned seven decades. Walls primarily owned community newspapers and advocated strong, courageous and positive editorial page leadership. His daughter — Lissa Walls Cribb — is CEO of Southern Newspapers.
This year's contest includes entries in three categories:
FOCUSED EDITORIALS This category recognizes editorials that examine a single, clearly defined issue, action or decision affecting a local community. Entries should reflect the official position of the newspaper and demonstrate clarity of purpose, strong reasoning and relevance to local impact.
PERSONAL INTEREST COLUMNS This category recognizes signed columns written from an individual perspective that explore human interest topics, including family life, community experiences and everyday challenges or successes. Entries should demonstrate strong voice, storytelling and relevance to readers through personal insight.
SIGNED POLITICAL AND SOCIAL COMMENTARY This category recognizes signed columns offering opinion and analysis on political, governmental or broader social issues. Entries should present a clear point of view, encourage thoughtful consideration and contribute to public understanding or debate.
The Camage Walls Commentary Prize awards will be presented at the America's Newspapers Senior Leadership Conference, to be held Sept. 28-30 in Washington, D.C. Finalists will be notified once judging has been completed!
