Club journalism contest winners, other honorees attend evening celebrating great reporting
The winners of the prestigious National Press Club Journalism Awards were announced in late June, and the anticipation of the dinner in late August where they'd be honored began to build.
News outlets all across the country — small-town newspapers to major international operations — were honored for work that ranged from some of the most tragic events of the year, to introspection or comedic relief, to investigative journalism that impacts the consciousness of the public and is an agent for change.
The Club is fortunate to have a number of named awards that focus on specific areas of coverage. They help drill down to subject areas that may not get recognition in other journalism contests.
For example, The New York Times won four awards, in different categories, with reporter Nicholas Fandos winning the Sandy Hume Award for Excellence in Political Journalism for his consistent revelatory takes on national political stories, including the fall of lawmakers George Santos, R-N.Y., and Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; and the team of Emily Steele, Sydney Ember and Mike Baker taking the Michael A. Dornheim Award for their insider look at issues facing air traffic controllers, in their investigative piece, “Flight Risks.”
The awards this year, recognized at the Aug. 28 dinner in the Club's Ballroom, were for coverage of events and issues in 2023, many of which continue to make news today: the war in Gaza, environmental disasters or policies that impact the delicate ecosystem of Earth, financial system missteps, and the state of journalism itself.
The evening event also saw Alsu Kurmasheva honored with the 2024 President’s Award which is given at the discretion of the president of the National Press Club.
Winners
Angele Gingras Humor Award
Seth Brown, The Berkshire Eagle for “The Pun Also Rises.”
Ann Cottrell Free Animal Reporting Award (Print)
Chiara Eisner, National Public Radio for “Coastal biomedical labs are bleeding more horseshoe crabs with little accountability.”
Ann Cottrell Free Animal Reporting Award (Broadcast)
Maya Trabulsi, KPBS for “Animal rescue groups expose backyard doodle breeder.”
Arthur E. Rowse Award for Examining the News Media (Print/Online)
Liam Scott and the team at Voice of America for “Last of the Watchdogs.”
Arthur E. Rowse Award for Examining the News Media (Broadcast)
Kaleidoscope for the podcast “Silenced: The Radio Murders.”
Breaking News Award (Print/Online)
The Wall Street Journal for “The New Banking Crisis.”
Breaking News Award (Broadcast)
National Public Radio for “The First Days of the Israel-Hamas War.”
Consumer Journalism Award (Print/Online)
Bloomberg News for “Bad Medicine.”
Consumer Journalism Award (Broadcast)
KXAN for “TxTag Troubles: A Viewer-Driven Investigation”
Edwin M. Hood Award
The Wall Street Journal for “Evan Gershkovich and the Global Surge in Hostage Diplomacy.”
Joan M. Friedenberg Online Journalism Award
The New York Times for “Inside the Deadly Maui Inferno, Hour by Hour.”
Joseph D. Ryle Award for Excellence in Writing on the Problems of Geriatrics
Jenny Deam, Denver Gazette/Colorado Springs Gazette for “The Unwatched: How Colorado Systematically Fails Its Most Vulnerable Elderly in Long-Term Care”
Lee Walczak Award for Political Analysis
Yaroslav Trofimov, The Wall Street Journal for “Wars and Power.”
Michael A. Dornheim Award
Sydney Ember, Emily Steel, and Mike Baker, The New York Times for “Flight Risks.”
Nell Minow Award for Cultural Criticism
Christine Emba, The Washington Post for “Men are lost. Here’s a map out of the wilderness.”
News Photography Award
Samar Abu Elouf, The New York Times
Newsletter Journalism Award
PBS NewsHour for “Here’s the Deal.”
Sandy Hume Award for Excellence in Political Journalism
Nicholas Fandos, The New York Times for “Exposing Political Secrets.”
Washington Regional Correspondence
Marilyn W. Thompson, ProPublica for “Redistricting: The Secretive Threat to Democracy".”
Honorable Mentions
Ann Cottrell Free Animal Reporting Award (Print)
Kevin Armstrong, The Star-Ledger for “Death at the Racetrack.”
Ann Cottrell Free Animal Reporting Award (Broadcast)
Scripps News for “Scripps News Investigates: Racing to Death”
Breaking News Award (Broadcast)
ABC World News Tonight with David Muir for “Earthquake in Turkey.”
Consumer Journalism Award (Print/Online)
Jesse Coburn, Streetsblog for “Ghost Tags: Inside New York City’s Black Market for Temporary License Plates.”
Consumer Journalism Award (Broadcast)
ABC News Live for “Trashed: The Secret Life of Plastic Recycling.”
Edwin M. Hood Award
Martin Smith, Marcela Gaviria, Rain Media for “America and The Taliban.”
Joan M. Friedenberg Online Journalism Award
KXAN for “OutLaw: A Half-Century Criminalizing LGBTQ+ Texans.”
Joseph D. Ryle Award for Excellence in Writing on the Problems of Geriatrics
Hannah Grabenstein, PBS NewsHour for “No Place to Live or Die.”
Lee Walczak Award for Political Analysis
Taryn Luna, Los Angeles Times for analysis.
Michael A. Dornheim Award
Bloomberg News for “Ghost in the Machine.”
Nell Minow Award for Cultural Criticism
Benjamin Ortiz, New Lines Magazine for “New Lines Magazine: ‘How Crossing the Texas-Mexico Border in the 1980s Led to a Trans-Atlantic Musical Awakening’”
Newsletter Journalism Award
Matt Arco, NJ Advance Media for “What Makes Christie Run?”
Sandy Hume Award for Excellence in Political Journalism
Benjamin Oreskes, Los Angeles Times for “Coverage of California's Congressional Delegation.”
Washington Regional Correspondence
Nick Grube, Honolulu Civil Beat for his regional reporting.