The Dawson Community News earned seven overall awards Friday night in the Georgia Press Association's annual Better Newspaper Contest.

The awards were presented at the GPA's annual conference in Jekyll Island. Newspapers from around the state were judged by members of the West Virginia Press Association.

The Community News competes among the state's weekly papers that have between 3,000 to 4,999 in circulation.

The Community News' first-place awards were for religion coverage and page one, which judged the overall appearance, quality and news worthiness of the issues submitted.

The Community News also earned second prize in page one.

The paper's third-place awards included humorous column, Sudie Crouch; education coverage; special issues, Mountain Moonshine Festival; and community service.

"I'm really proud of our journalists at Dawson Community News," said publisher John Hall. "Year after year they continue to win awards while competing in a classification that represents fairly large circulation weekly newspapers."