The South Carolina Press Association awarded Columbia Free Times with eight accolades and Charleston City Paper with nine at its recent journalism contest.

The Association named Free Times reporter Corey Hutchins the South Carolina Journalist of the Year:

“The breadth, depth and remarkable impact statewide of Corey Hutchins investigative journalism makes him the compelling choice for this honor,” read judges’ comments. His investigative reporting on Lt. Gov. Ken Ard broke the story of improper campaign spending, leading to a criminal investigation.”

Noting that Hutchins also was the first to break the story of Darla Moore’s removal from the USC Board of Trustees, the judges wrote, “He has been a bulldog reporter whose work has had an impact … his work is something to emulate.”

The paper took first place awards in Enterprise Reporting, Beat Reporting and Lifestyle Feature Writing in its division, as well as second place also in Enterprise Reporting and Twitter usage.

Third place awards went to illustration, Twitter usage and the paper’s “2011 Green Issue.”

Individual winners were Porter Barron Jr., Eva Moore, Patrick Wall, Wilbert T. Fields and Jason Crosby.

Charleston City Paper took first place in photo illustration for its Nyan Cat inspired cover, “Poptart Cat.”

It also received second place awards in the categories of Online Sports Video, Lifestyle/Feature Special Section, Newspaper Website and Beat Reporting. The paper took third place in the categories of Online Feature Video, Critical Writing and In-Depth Reporting and was also given an honorable mention for Personality Photograph or Portrait.

Individual winners were Adam Chandler, Susan Cohen, Joshua Curry, Scott Suchy, Erica Jackson Curran, Gervase Caycedo and Paul Bowers.