Gulf Coast Media won 31 awards at the Alabama Press Association's annual conference and Better News Contest ceremony over the weekend, including 18 first-place awards that span reporting, photography, design and advertising.

This year, 51 publications submitted 1,727 entries in the annual editorial contest, while 23 publications submitted to the advertising portion and 22 to the open division magazine categories. The Pennsylvania News Media Association membership judged the entries.

The APA contest recognizes work published the year prior. GCM's haul is a record for the company, besting its previous record of 20 set each of the previous two years.

Recognitions, especially among the 18 first-place awards, represent GCM's mission of being a reliable resource to readers, whether they are longtime locals, newcomers or visitors, and providing local news and information with an emphasis on visual storytelling and multiplatform readability.

For the third year in a row, Big Beautiful Baldwin, GCM's newcomers guide designed by McKinzie Impastato, was named Best Niche Publication. This year, it earned the first-place nod in both APA's editorial and advertising contests.

In the same vein, a new product, the Gulf Coast Media Voter's Guide, which provided candidate questionaries and voter need-to-know information and was designed by Brooke Duck, won Best Special Section in both the editorial and advertising contests.

On the topic of election coverage, Kayla Green earned first place for her editorial about campaign finance patterns in Fairhope's city council races. She also won for her photo essay covering the record-breaking snowstorm in Gulf Shores. In the magazine contest, she won Best Personality Profile for a story about Foley-based muralist Banks Compton that published in GCM's Beachin' Magazine.

Reporter Colin James won in the spot news category for an article headlined "State pauses $40K in Fairhope library funding over 'inappropriate books,'" his first career first-place reporting award.

Micah Green won Best News Photo for a capture at Flora-Bama's Bulls on the Beach rodeo event.

Whisper Vaughn-Edwards got first place for her headline "This Robertsdale diner is off the rails – in the best way" about the Derailed Diner.

April Perry earned first place for classifieds in the advertising contest.

GCM's Best of Baldwin 2025 magazine was named Best Regular Special Section in the advertising contest, which is designed annually by McKinzie Impastato. One of her Best of Baldwin ads for Cozumel Bar & Grill, with client support from GCM sales representative Frank Kustura, won Best Innovative Online Advertising.

A new campaign won two advertising awards in a collaboration that spans all departments at GCM. Designed by graphic designer Brooke Duck, spearheaded by executive editor Kayla Green and with content production support from reporter Gabriella Chavez, circulation and accounts/subscriber manager Amber Kimbler, GCM's Report for America end-of-year fundraising and awareness campaign won Best In-Paper Promotion and Best Original/Creative Idea. Chavez's salary is funded on a declining scale by Report for America on a three-year contract, and tax-deductible donations can be made to support the sustainability of her position – Report for America serves as GCM's fiscal sponsor and takes no fees – by mailing a check to our office at 1350 N. McKenzie St., Foley, AL 36535, or emailing kayla@gulfcoastmedia.com for a link to donate online.

The three other first-place awards went to former reporter Ruth Mayo for Local Education Coverage, a category that judges a reporter's body of work rather than single article, and a Beachin' story about Perdido Vineyards that was named Best Business Feature in the magazine contest. Former sports editor Kam Wicker won for his local sports column headlined "Why the AHSAA should adopt a running clock mercy rule for prep football."

Second-place awards included three in the editorial contest, two in advertising and one for Beachin' in the magazine contest.

The GCM newsroom got a staff award for its online breaking news coverage of the January 2025 snowstorm. Another digital award was for the newsroom's use of social media, led by Micah Green.

Colin James earned second place for his feature photo of the old Searcy Chapel on the grounds of Searcy Hospital, titled "Forgotten to Time."

GCM's graphic design department, McKinzie Impastato and Brooke Duck, were recognized in the Layout and Design category and Advertising General Excellence.

Ruth Mayo got second place in the Travel Feature magazine category for a Beachin' story about the Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trail.

Beachin' won third place for overall design, done by Micah Green, and third place for Magazine of the Year. Beachin' is relaunching this fall as Taste, a countywide celebration of cuisine, art, fashion and the people behind your favorite and off the beaten path restaurants. To learn more, make sure you're signed up for GCM's free newsletter The Wave by going to www.gulfcoastmedia.com/newsletter.

Green also got a third-place nod for his photo essay of the SS United States passing by Fort Morgan into Mobile Bay.

A spot news photo of a snowball fight during the January 2025 winter storm got third place for Kayla Green.

Gabriella Chavez, who only had her first six months of work to consider, won her first career individual award with a third-place recognition in the Spot News Story category for an article headlined "Baldwin County food pantries brace for rising demand as SNAP cuts take effect nationwide."

To round out GCM's record-setting contest year, designer McKinzie Impastato earned two third-place awards in the advertising contest with ads for White Sands RV and Look Dental, both Best of Baldwin ads.