The Times-Standard-Herald swept the top three places for Best Public Service and won first place in the Freedom of Information/First Amendment special category in the Alabama Media Awards at the Alabama Press Association’s 2026 Summer Convention this past weekend in Orange Beach, the strongest single showing in a weekend of honors for parent company Watchman Media Group and its titles.
Watchman Media Group’s papers compete in Division D, the largest of the competition’s divisions and the one in which most of the state’s weekly newspapers compete, from larger community weeklies to small rural papers. The association counts more than 100 active member newspapers.
“Public service and First Amendment are the categories that matter most to me, and Division D is far and away the biggest field in the contest,” said publisher John Allan Clark.
“Most of the papers in the state are in it. Most of them are bigger than we are, they have more staff and deeper pockets, some are corporate publications with considerable resources. We are a small, independent paper even by Division D standards. It’s an honor to win in such a crowded field.”
All three public service entries were by publisher John Allan Clark. The first-place entry, “Marion Water System: Financial Accountability,” drew on open records requests and document analysis to give residents their first documented picture of the city’s finances, including a 2022 fiscal year audit that showed a qualified opinion, a General Fund deficit exceeding $1 million, unverifiable water receivables, more than $1.2 million in unrecorded payables, and an unresolved IRS assessment.
Follow-up reporting confirmed the city had filed no audits with the state examiners after 2020 and documented grant funds arriving as some vendors reported unpaid bills.
The second-place entry, “Criminal Justice Reporting,” recognized the paper’s coverage of the courts. The third-place entry, “Marion Governance: Police Crisis,” documented the night the city’s police chief, assistant chief, a lieutenant and an officer all resigned, leaving Marion with five officers and no command staff, and reported on the fallout over the ensuing weeks.
The paper’s first-place Freedom of Information/First Amendment award, for “Marion Water System: Audit Accountability,” recognized its fight for access to public information, including records requests the city never fulfilled, an incident in which the editor was barred from a City Hall meeting, and a council meeting adjourned without the public comment period listed on the agenda.
Second and third place in that category went to the Sumter County Record Journal, for “Mayor, Why was I removed from agenda?” and “York Council did not meet illegally.” Journal publisher Tommy McGraw, who also publishes the Moundville Times, has won the First Amendment award more times than any other publisher in the division.
Watchman Media Group reporter Brian Clements took third place for Best Feature Story Coverage for “Moreland named to Ala. Military Hall of Honor in ceremony at MMI” in the Times-Standard-Herald, a narrative account of Staff Sergeant James Leslie Moreland’s induction into the Alabama Military Hall of Honor more than 40 years after his death at the Battle of Lang Vei during the Tet Offensive. The story reconstructed Moreland’s actions the night of Feb. 6, 1968, and noted that his remains were not recovered until 2010. The ceremony was held at Marion Military Institute in Marion.
The Greensboro Watchman rounded out WMG’s weekend with a second-place finish for Best Business Story or Column for “Project Whisker could see long-idle Greensboro catfish facility brought back into operation,” by publisher John Allan Clark.
