Carolina Public Press was recognized by the North Carolina Press Association on Thursday as one of the top online-only news organizations in the state, the highlight of seven honors the Durham-based statewide nonprofit organization received.
At the NCPA’s annual awards banquet in Raleigh for work done in the period from April 2023 to March 2024, the staff of CPP accepted a 3rd place award for general excellence. North Carolina Health News and The Assembly took respectively the 1st and 2nd place honors in the category. CPP has placed in this category in every year except one since first competing in the 2017 awards.
This year’s contest was judged by journalists in Colorado.
[Subscribe for FREE to Carolina Public Press’ alerts and weekend roundup newsletters]
CPP also received six awards in other categories, as previously announced:
1st place in feature photography to frequent CPP contributing photographer Colby Rabon, who is based in Asheville. The award-winning image offered a portrait of young man, who is a refugee from Afghanistan living in Buncombe County, as described in a related article, published in December 2023.
2nd place in election/political reporting to former CPP staff reporter Grace Vitaglione for her August 2023 article on Gen Z and Millennial political activity.
The judge praised the article for “coverage of a topic that surfaces more and more,” adding that Vitaglione had done “a good job finding young people taking the roles while pointing out the traditional well.”
3rd place in election/political reporting to former CPP staff reporter Mehr Sher for her March 2024 article on counties losing elections directors. This article inspired a major three-part investigative series from Sher, Elections Brain Drain, which CPP published in June 2024.
The judge noted the originality of Sher’s reporting: “Interesting focus on a topic not usually covered. Good job.”
3rd place in investigative reporting to longtime CPP contributing reporter Jack Igelman for his 2023 articles on efforts to attain the federal designation of “Wild and Scenic River” for the North Fork of the French Broad River in Transylvania County.
Igelman, who is based in Asheville, has received multiple past awards for his environmental reporting for CPP, including work on mountain forests, coastal ghost forests, vandalism of public lands and coastal fisheries in the face of climate change. This week, CPP published his latest investigative series, Coastal Kindling, on the high risk of flammability in coastal wildlands near fast-growing human developments.
The judge praised Igelman’s “engaging article” for its comprehensive approach, including “plenty of history, multiple sources, supporting photographs and easy readability.”
3rd place to CPP editor in chief Frank Taylor for headline writing. The judge noted Taylor’s “straightforward” approach to headlines.
3rd place to Taylor for lighter commentary. Commentary had not typically appeared on CPP’s website, but is a part of its Weekend newsletters, where Taylor’s work often appears.
The entries for this category included columns appearing between January and March 2024 on topics including the confusing place names of North Carolina, the questionable value of political signs and why news media coverage of primaries is important.
The judge noted the latter column’s topic in particular and praised CPP’s choice of this content for its weekend supplement product: “Good job on detailing the reasons for covering local elections. … Weekend editions are as important as regular editions and a place to get these stories in front of more readers. Nice work!”
Taylor, who was previously managing editor of CPP from Oct. 2015 to July 2022, returned to CPP in December 2023 after 18 months in South Carolina during which he oversaw the Columbia local news team for the Charleston-based Post & Courier.
Taylor received or shared in numerous previous awards at CPP for freedom of information reporting, investigative reporting, public service, political reporting, local government reporting, general reporting, headlines and photo illustrations.
Accepting the awards Thursday were CPP Interim Executive Director Lisa Lopez, Taylor, staff reporters Sarah Michels and Jane Winik Sartwell and reporting intern Lucas Thomae.
Thomae also received an award, 3rd place in enterprise reporting, for an article on medical marijuana and road safety he wrote during a previous internship with North Carolina Health News.
During Thursday’s event, a special award was presented to former NCPA chief counsel Amanda Martin, who retired to join the faculty of the Duke University Law School full time. Martin frequently consulted with CPP on legal strategy and provided advance review of some of CPP’s biggest investigative projects. She has been quoted in many CPP stories explaining media law principles.
“It is always gratifying to receive this recognition from our peers,” Taylor said.
“We’ve had an interesting year of transition, including the move of our physical address from Asheville to Durham and multiple changes in our team’s makeup. We lost two award-winning staff members to highly respected statewide and international news organizations. I have to consider that flattering.
“But we have a terrific new team in place now and I was excited to have them join us and share in this celebration of journalistic excellence – both our own and that of other hard-working news organizations across this state.
“Our reporters have only been with us a short time – all arriving after the window for the current awards year. I know our new team has already been doing excellent work, so I expect to continue building on our journalistic legacy. The awards are excellent, but we measure true achievement through connecting with our readers across North Carolina and keeping them informed about important public-interest issues.”
Related
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may republish our stories for free, online or in print. Simply copy and paste the article contents from the box below. Note, some images and interactive features may not be included here.