Selma Sun staff takes home 14 awards from Alabama Press Association

The Selma Sun and Black Belt News Network team accepted three major awards from the Alabama Press Association for news efforts in 2024 during a ceremony on June 28.

Selma Sun's total awards collection in the 2025 contest is 14 that includes nine first-place wins in top categories such as local news coverage, online breaking news, best video and best podcast.

Publisher Cindy Fisher and reporter Todd Prater took home the coveted Best Public Service award for the "Camping in the Black Belt" video which is the start of a series featuring camping at sites throughout the Black Belt starting with Paul Grist Park in Dallas County. 

The Selma Sun is the print newspaper covering Dallas County while the Black Belt News Network is the team's regional online news site that produces news in five other counties in the Black Belt. 

“The Selma Sun and BBNN team are thrilled to see our work recognized with so many top honors, but we don't do this top-notch journalism every day for the accolades - we do it for our readers because the community deserves it," Fisher said.

Fisher said she is especially proud of being honored in the innovative digital categories where few other agencies have ventured.

"We focus heavily on video and podcasts because we want to reach readers in many different ways and meet them where they are," Fisher said. "Whether they want their news in print, online or on their phones - we're there."

Selma Sun won first place in their category for Online Breaking News coverage for the first story published about Morgan Academy quarterback Caden Tellier suffering from a brain injury in the opening football game in August 2024. Writing the story "Quarterback dies from injury sustained in football game" was challenging for Fisher and staff writer Fred Guarino, who covers Morgan Academy football regularly, as they knew the community was shocked and hurting. 

Fisher also won first place in the Best News Feature category for "Selma community mourns the loss of two teens" which outlined the community’s handling of the loss of Tellier, the Morgan Academy quarterback who died in a football game, and a Selma High teen who died the same weekend in a shooting.

Fisher attended the memorial service for Tellier and shared a video that took home first place for Best Use of Video under 2 minutes with "Quarterback who dies of brain injury gets revival he wished for.”

Fisher said she was excited to see one of the team’s community correspondents, Angela Benjamin, win first place for Best Feature Story for "Oldest living Civil Rights Foot Soldier George Sallie crosses bridge one last time" that ran on Jan. 31, 2024.

Community Correspondents are citizen journalists who help cover events and news in the Black Belt, and Fisher encourages other residents to join the team and send stories, photos and videos from their neighborhood as a community correspondent as well by emailing news@blackbeltnewsnetwork.com.

“The Selma Sun and Black Belt News Network are a community effort – we connect the community through stories, news and information, and we invite everyone to participate,” Fisher said.

The team’s weekly Live Black Belt Newscast that airs every Friday won first place for Creative Use of Multimedia, and the newscast’s audio podcast won first place for Best Podcast. 

Selma Sun also won second place for the successful Selma Sun Newspaper Facebook page and third place for the Black Belt News Network’s TikTok page. 

In the video category Best Use of Video under 2 minutes, reporter Todd Prater got third place for "Pier dedication to Big Daddy Lawler" that recognized the opening of a pier at Roland Cooper State Park in Camden for James “Big Daddy” Lawler. 

For longer videos over 2 minutes, Fisher and Prater won first place for "2024 Year in Review" and third place for "Camping in the Black Belt" which is the start of a series featuring camping at sites throughout the Black Belt starting with Paul Grist Park in Dallas County.

Winners in select categories of the 2025 Alabama Press Association Media Awards were announced by Dee Ann Campbell, chairman of the AMA Contest Committee. This year, 53 publications submitted 1,725 entries in the annual contest. The Michigan Press Association membership judged the entries.