Gazette columnist Paul Hyde wins 3 awards in national contest

South Carolina Daily Gazette columnist Paul Hyde won three awards in the National Society of Newspaper Columnists’ 2026 contest.

His first-, second- and third-place awards represent the most of any single writer among winners announced Thursday evening, who represented more than 80 publications.

His awards spanned three of the contest’s six categories for commentary published in 2025. In two categories, general and humor, the 49-year-old nonprofit separately awarded winners for print and online outlets.

Hyde’s top prize, won for crisis commentary, was for the following columns:

• “South Carolina’s heart of darkness: The firing squad and death penalty” (March 4, 2025)
• “Bridge collapse should be a warning to fix SC’s roads” (Aug. 4, 2025)

Hyde won second place in the general interest category for online outlets and tied for third place for social justice commentary.

The latest recognition follows his third-place award last year in the contest’s social justice category.

Hyde, who lives in Anderson County, has been a contributing columnist for the SC Daily Gazette since shortly after the nonprofit news outlet launched in November 2023.

A longtime journalist and teacher, he worked 18 years for the Greenville News as a columnist, editorial writer, education reporter and arts writer.

The only other news outlet to win three awards Thursday was the Kansas Reflector, a States Newsroom affiliate of the SC Daily Gazette. Its columnist, Max McCoy, won first place for humor commentary among online publications and an honorable mention in crisis commentary, while the outlet’s opinion editor, Clay Wirestone, won third place for crisis commentary.