Brunswick News reporter wins University of Ga. community journalism award for reporting on Ahmaud Arbery's death

Larry Hobbs accepts the Pete McCommons Award
at Grady College. (Photo by Sarah E. Freeman)

After three white men chased down and killed Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery in February 2020, local authorities in Glynn County, Georgia, failed to take meaningful action for months. But dogged attention from reporter Larry Hobbs of The Brunswick News kept the issue front and center in the community, and later, the nation. For that, he has won the 2020 Rollin M. "Pete" McCommons Award for Distinguished Community Journalism. The award, sponsored by Grady College, is given each year to a community journalist who displays outstanding leadership, innovation and entrepreneurism on the job.

"I am thrilled that Larry Hobbs is this year’s recipient of the local journalism award endowed in my name by Grady Thrasher and Kathy Prescott," Pete McCommons, the publisher and editor of Flagpole Magazine in Athens, said in a news release. "Larry is a great example of the local reporter who doggedly follows a difficult story in spite of all the other assignments that compete for his time and attention."

At the recent acceptance ceremony, Grady College Journalism Department Head Janice Hume noted the critical role Hobbs played in the case. "It was Mr. Hobbs’ attention to detail and dogged reporting that brought the story of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder first to local and then national attention," said Hume. "Without the work of a local journalist who understood and cared about his community, there would have been no justice for Mr. Arbery’s family. Local journalism matters, and Mr. Hobbs’ work is a fine example of why. We are grateful for his service to the Brunswick community and beyond."

Though Grady College is in Georgia, the McCommons Award is open to journalists nationwide, and the committee is seeking nominations for the 2021 award until Sept. 30. Click here for more information.