The South Carolina Daily Gazette staff in 2025 included Editor Seanna Adcox and reporters Skylar Laird, Shaun Chornobroff and Jessica Holdman, as seen on the Statehouse steps in Columbia on Thursday, March 13, 2025. (Photo by William Meacham/Special to the SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — SC Daily Gazette reporters won 12 awards at the South Carolina Press Association’s annual awards banquet Friday, including two announced as surprises at the event.
For the second year, a reporter for the Gazette took top honors for business reporting. David Wren won the Ken Baldwin Award for Excellence in Business Journalism for all daily news outlets in South Carolina.
Last year, senior reporter Jessica Holdman won the award sponsored by the University of South Carolina’s journalism school, which comes with a $500 prize.
Wren also won first place in business beat reporting, while Holdman won third place among all entries in Division A, the category for the state’s largest daily newspapers.
In another contest announced at the ceremony, Holdman won second place from the Center for Integrity in News Reporting among all dailies statewide. It was South Carolina’s inaugural year in a contest that recognizes “impartial, objective and fair news.”
Holdman’s winning entry was an article about calls to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency and its role in helping South Carolinians recover from natural disasters.
The 2026 winners recognized work published between mid-November 2024 and mid-November 2025.
It was only the second time the Gazette has competed in the press association’s annual contest, which awards the state’s best in journalism, including articles, photos, columns, editorials, and page layouts.
The nonprofit news outlet competed in a division that included The Post and Courier, The State, and the Greenville News.
Every reporter who worked for the Gazette in 2025 was a winner.
Skylar Laird won five awards. They included two first-place awards in Division A.
Her articles on budget earmarks, free school meals, and efforts to ban abortions earned first place for government beat reporting.
Judges called them “stories that do a good job of explaining to readers how government action and votes can affect them.”
She took second and first place in arts and entertainment writing. The top prize was for an article about a play on the Gullah Geechee experience during the American Revolution.
“The creative framing of historical figures reflecting on their actions makes the history engaging, emotional and thought-provoking,” the judges wrote. “Overall, it brings important truths to life while encouraging deeper reflection on America’s past.”
Laird and Holdman won for their reporting on health topics.
In health beat reporting, a category for all dailies statewide (without divisions), Holdman won second, and Laird placed third.
Holdman won four awards overall. In education beat reporting, she placed second for Division A.
Former reporter Shaun Chornobroff won third place in government beat reporting, also for Division A.
The award sponsored by USC’s journalism school is named in memory of Kenneth W. Baldwin Jr., a USC graduate and benefactor of financial journalism education. The former business editor died in 2022 at age 96.
Wren began writing for the Gazette last May, primarily on the State Ports Authority and manufacturing in the Lowcountry.
His winning entries covered the impact of tariffs on the Port of Charleston, efforts to help South Carolina’s soybean farmers, and project delays at a taxpayer-funded rail yard.
Judges wrote that his reporting stood out in a year when many entries involved tariffs.
“In addition to his excellent writing, he has a knack for explaining key factors in such a way that every reader can understand,” judges wrote. “He also looks at key issues from multiple angles. Finally, he interviews an impressive range of expert sources, giving his work more depth than expected.”
The SC Daily Gazette launched on Nov. 14, 2023, as the 37th affiliate of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
It is an ad-free, online news outlet supported by grants and donations. While the Gazette doesn’t print a newspaper, it offers a free subscription to emailed newsletters that arrive in inboxes six mornings a week.
Holdman and Laird are part of the outlet’s founding team. Chornobroff worked for the Gazette from January through June of 2025.
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