The Post-Searchlight has been judged to be the best twice-weekly or trice-weekly newspaper in the state of Georgia.

The newspaper won 21 awards, including first place in the coveted General Excellence category at the Georgia Press Association Better Newspaper Awards dinner held Friday night at Jekyll Island.

In total, The Post-Searchlight and thepostsearchlight.com won 13 first place awards, two second place awards, and six third place awards.

“It is an honor and privilege to be held in such high regard by our peers,” said Jeff Findley, publisher of The Post-Searchlight. “We strive to provide the best news coverage, informed opinion, and relevant information possible to Decatur County. I am very proud of our staff and extremely happy for our community to have the best newspaper of our size and frequency in the state.”

The General Excellence award considers the number of first place awards in the Better Newspaper Contest, along with first place awards won in the advertising contest, which was announced in April.

Members of the Missouri Press Association judged the contest entries and 616 awards were given out to 78 Georgia newspapers.

“I am very proud of the hard work the entire Post-Searchlight staff has put in to earn these awards,” said Powell Cobb, managing editor of The Post-Searchlight. “Our mission is to provide the best news possible to Bainbridge and Decatur County, and we will continue our coverage of this community to the best of our ability.”