Finalists announced for Carmage Walls Commentary Prize

First-, second- and third-place awards for EDITORIALS and COLUMNS will be presented Oct. 21 during an awards luncheon at the Senior Leadership Conference in Charleston.

Separate awards will be presented in each category for newspapers under 35,000 and those over 35,000 circulation.

In alphabetical order, the "under 35,000 circulation" and "over 35,000 circulation" finalists in this year's Carmage Walls Commentary Prize competition are:

For COLUMNS:

• Charita Goshay, columnist, The Canton Repository, Canton, Ohio
• Suzette Hackney, national columnist, USA TODAY, Washington, D.C.
• Dion Lefler, opinion editor, The Wichita Eagle, Wichita, Kansas
• Rex Nelson, senior editor, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Little Rock, Arkansas
• Nedra Rhone, lifestyle columnist, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta, Georgia
• Greg Weatherbee, publisher, The Lufkin Daily News, Lufkin, Texas

For EDITORIALS:

• Nick Hrkman, community impact editor, Dayton Daily News, Dayton, Ohio
• Dion Lefler, opinion editor, The Wichita Eagle, Wichita, Kansas
• Rebecca Pierce, executive editor, Traverse City Record-Eagle, Traverse City, Michigan
• Dave Stafford, opinion page editor, The Republic, Columbus, Indiana
• Byron Tate, editor, Pine Bluff Commercial, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
• Lucy Young-Oda, editor, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Honolulu, Hawaii

In addition to recognition and beautiful plaques, cash awards also will be presented as follows in each of the four contest brackets: first-place, $2,250; second-place, $1,000; and third-place, $500. This puts total cash prizes at $15,000 — thanks to the generous support of Lissa Walls Cribb and Southern Newspapers, Inc.

Additional Honorable Mentions also will be announced Oct. 21.

Watch for the announcement of awards on the America's Newspapers website on the afternoon of Oct. 21.

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.