The Rome News-Tribune won 16 awards for its news coverage in the 2011 Georgia Press Association Better Newspaper Contest.

Once again the hometown newspaper placed in the overall General Excellence category, placing third in the state, for overall work in 2010.

In the main award categories announced at Friday night’s award banquet at the Jekyll Island Club, the newspaper garnered the Hal M. Stanley Trophy for first place in layout and design, for newspapers under 40,000 circulation.

It also placed second in Community Service for its series of stories on public housing. Past Times, the newspaper’s popular annual historical publication, won second place in the Special Issues category and the paper earned second in the Page One category as well.

Among editorial cartoonists at all daily newspapers in Georgia, the Rome New’s Tribune’s Mike Lester placed third.

RN-T.com’s New Media Department grabbed both second and third place in Best Online News Project for PrepCentral/Gridiron Central and youth sports, respectively.

Other GPA award winners were:

First place, News Photograph, Ryan Smith

First place, Best Web Photo, Ryan Smith

Second place, Business Coverage, Doug Walker

Second place, Sports Photograph, Daniel Varnado

Second place, Sports Feature Photograph, Ryan Smith

Second place, Feature Photograph, Daniel Varnado

Third place, Headline Writing, Copy Desk

Third place, News Photograph, Ryan Smith

“It’s nice to see that the awards we won covered all aspects of the newspaper, from our reporting and photography to layout/design and headline writing to our online projects,” said Editor Charlotte Atkins. “Our news and new-media teams are committed to covering our community as comprehensively as possible and then packaging that news and information in a dynamic easy-to-read way in print and on our website.”