farragutpress ‘Dream Team’ racks up TPA awards – farragutpress

November 4, 2026 by Jake Nichols

The Chicago Bulls had Michael Jordan. NASCAR had Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. Alabama had Nick Saban.

And in the same dominant, award-winning vein, the farragutpress has the quiet yet confident team of Tony Christen and Cindy Wilfert.

Having racked up more than 220 Tennessee Press Association honors together since 2018, the design dream team added to its total with 12 awards this year, including eight first-place finishes.

There were a total of 231 entries from 17 newspapers in this year’s contest.

With entries judged by members of the Maine Press Association, along with other judges from Arkansas and North Carolina, the farragutpress awards spanned multiple categories.

First-place finishes were as follows: 

Best Special Section, Even Better Now (N-2); Best Self-Promotion of a Newspaper, farragutpress Fur Family (N-2); Best Sales Promotion for a Retailer, YMCA ad series (N-1,N-2,D-1); Best Use of Single Color Ad, Water into Wine (N-2); Best 1/4 Page or Smaller Ad, Camp Big Fish (N-2); Best Professional Service Ad, McKinnish Law (N-2); Best Furniture and/or Appliance Ad, Keith Window Company (N-1,N-2,D-1); Best Niche Publication, Tellico Pulse (N-2,D-1).
In second place, farragutpress totaled three awards: Best Use of Single Color Ad, Chota Health (N-2); Best Professional Service Ad, Main Street Architects (N-2); and Best Niche Publication, Sweetwater Pictorial History Book (N-2,D-1). There also was a third-place finish for Best 1/4 Page or Smaller Ad for Sunago Coffee (N-2).

Notably, the farragutpress finished ahead of bigger outlets in multiple categories.

“As I enter my third year in this position, I continue to be impressed by the talent, dedication and creativity of our farragutpress Production department,” farragutpress general manager Kathy Hartman said. “Each year, Tony Christen and Cindy Wilfert raise the bar, and their success at the 2026 Tennessee Press Association Contests and Awards is well-deserved. With 12 placements, including eight first-place awards, along with additional recognition for our sister newspaper, their work speaks for itself.

“In an ever-changing media landscape, particularly with the growing influence of AI, it is refreshing to see the value of genuine talent, creativity and personal dedication recognized. Tony and Cindy are more than a talented design team; they genuinely take pride in their work and go the extra mile to make sure our clients are pleased with the finished product. This recognition is a testament to their hard work, and I couldn’t be prouder of what they continue to accomplish.”

“I feel blessed,” Christen added of the awards he shares with Wilfert. “The first year we did it, I never expected to win one, let alone how many we have won to date. You never know if they will pick anything you like or if you have done anything that peers or papers around the country will see and respect and think it’s award-winning. So to have won 12 in total, eight first place, and to have beaten three big daily papers is a huge accomplishment. 

“To do it knowing it’s just the two of us and that a lot of people have bigger budgets, bigger companies and a lot of them have moved everything overseas, it shows that the work we do is very important,” he added. “And we are able to do what we do and get recognized.”

As Christen and Hartman alluded, the progression of technology makes their work that much more valuable.

“But we are still doing everything from the ground up, and I think that is incredibly important,” he said. “And I also feel blessed because I am still working with a good friend of mine, someone I have a deep amount of respect for and have for a number of years now, and that the company still allows us to do it and people here trust us. The owner of the company, Mr. Horne, still likes what we do, and that says a lot for the type of people we are and what we have accomplished.”
© 2026 farragutpress

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