About the Southerner

Published without interruption since 1947, the Southerner has always been an essential part of Midtown’s campus culture. Even in its first years of publication, the paper earned top evaluation scores from the leading scholastic press associations (The National Scholastic Press Association [NSPA], the Columbia Scholastic Press Association [CSPA] and the Quill and Scroll International Honorary Society for High School Journalists). 

When Midtown, at the time Grady, launched the School of Communications (SOC), or Communication Magnet program in 1981, the Southerner was the foundation upon which the program was built. As the SOC gained popularity and its enrollment grew, many other outstanding programs joined the communications school– broadcast journalism, visual arts, forensics, mock trial, fashion and design to name a few– but the Southerner has remained a standard-bearer of the school’s communication pathways throughout its 78 years of publication.

When the Communications Magnet Program ended in 2015, the Southerner lost much of its funding but maintained its standard of excellence, winning the All-Georgia Newspaper award from the Georgia Scholastic Press Association (GSPA) every year since. Adviser Delbert Ellerton took over in 2015 and led the Southerner to its first online Pacemaker Award in 2021.

For its quality work the Southerner received two national awards in NSPA’s Best of Show awards ceremony on Nov. 9, 2024. The Southerner was ranked eighth best newspaper for a school with fewer than 1,800 students and fourth best website for a school with fewer than 1,800 students. 

Since 2000, the Southerner has been extremely successful, winning the NSPA Pacemaker Awards (2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2011, 2014) and being a finalist in 2010. The staff earned the Crown Award, CSPA’s top honor (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2017). Of these, five were Gold Crowns. In addition, the Southerner won the George H. Gallup Award, Quill and Scroll’s top staff award (2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014). The Southerner was honored as part of the Pacemaker 100 in 2021.

In 2006, members of the Southerner staff launched Nexus magazine, a full-color magazine focused on cultural trends and events. Originally a supplement to the newspaper, the magazine grew into an independent publication, which earned national accolades of its own. In the spring of 2009, CSPA awarded Nexus with a First Place Gold Circle Award for having the best design for a specialty magazine in the nation. Nexus was also chosen as a finalist for this award in 2012. However, Nexus stopped being printed in 2018 and switched to an online format, however, in 2020, the Nexus magazine was retired. 

Southerner and Nexus journalists have excelled in individual competitions as well. The staff has earned hundreds of state, regional and national awards for excellence in scholastic journalism. Since 2002, a Southerner or Nexus staff member has been named the Georgia Journalist of the Year seven times. 

Several former Southerner staffers are currently on staff for collegiate papers. 2021 social media and news managing editor Lindsay Ruhl is the breaking news editor for the Tulane Hullabaloo. 2022 editor in chief Stella Mackler is the editor in chief for the Davidsonian at Davidson College. 2023 editor in chief Aran Sonnad-Joshi is a writer at Harvard for the Crimson.  Dana Richie, 2021 Editor in Cheif is now the Editor in Chief for the Brown Daily Herald. 

Ayana Archie who wrote for the Southerner in 2016 has gone on to become a over night breaking news reporter for NPR. J.D. Capelouto who graduated in 2014 also went on to have a career in journalism and writes for Semafor. 

The Southerner is dedicated to continuing to serve the Midtown community with thorough, strong journalism.