The 2021 Awards received more than 400 entries, across more than 40 diverse categories, that included best use of sponsored/ branded content, best use of social media/ crowd sourcing, best radio & TV Websites and more.
Entries came from media companies large and small world-wide, that included local news publishing, broadcast networks, cable news & sports networks, international pureplay Websites, niche content publishers, as well as many colleges and universities.
Congratulations the winners and finalists below
(Note: If a category is not listed, it is due to either a lack entrants or score levels too low to recognize a winner or finalist)
Best Daily newspaper website (1 million or more unique visitors):
The Boston Globe for BostonGlobe.com
Judge’s comments: BostonGlobe.com reflects the diverse, exciting and intense nature of its home, providing a great resource to their community.
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Best weekly or non-daily newspaper website (fewer than 1 million unique visitors):
Las Vegas Weekly for LasVegasWeekly.com
Judges’ comments: Very comprehensive and complete view of what's happening in and what there is to do in Last Vegas. Not light on content and certainly not a directory.
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Best magazine website (fewer than 1 million unique visitors):
Authorlink.com
Judges’ comments: A well done redesign! The site now looks like a digital magazine site, not a digital catalog. The UX is appealing.
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Best sports news website (1 million or more unique visitors):
ESPN Digital Media for ESPN.com
Finalists: CNN for CNNSports.com AND ESPN for ESPNCricinfo.com
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Best online-only news (1 million or more unique visitors):
Block Club Chicago for BlockClubChicago.org
Judges’ comments: The Block Club Chicago embodies what an online news outlet should be - bursting with valuable, local information and packaged in an easy to consume format.
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Best online-only news (fewer than 1 million unique visitors):
CalMatters for CalMatters.org
Judge’s comments: A deceptively simple digital outlet that provides more depth the longer you stay on the page. I commend you for providing a Spanish-language version of your website.
Finalist: The City for TheCity.org
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Best Local TV News website (1 million or more unique visitors):
KSAT for KSAT.com
Judges’ comments: Overall the feel of the website is user-friendly with good categorization and frequent updating of news stories.
Finalist: ClickOrlando.com
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Best Local TV News website (1 million or more unique visitors):
WSLS for WSLS.com
Judges’ comments: The newsletters are informative and appear very localized.
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Best local radio news website (1 million or more unique visitors):
Minnesota Public Radio for MPRnews.org
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Best Business/finance website (1 million or more unique visitors)
CNBC for CNBC.com
Judges’ comments: CNBC provides multiple positive ways to engage with its brand through newsletter sign-ups, videos, special sections, and integration of trending topics.
Finalist: CNN for CNN Business
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Best business/finance website (fewer than 1 million unique visitors):
GrowthSpotter for GrowthSpotter.com
Judges’ comments: The categorization and tagging of articles provide a simple yet effective way for consumers to find the content most relevant to them.
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Best entertainment/cultural news website (fewer than 1 million unique visitors):
Religion Unplugged for ReligionUnplugged.com
Judges’ comments: The push of off-site interaction (email and notifications) is a sign Religion Unplugged is looking to continue to grow and engage its audience.
Finalist: OnMilwaukee for OnMilwaukee.com
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Best mobile news app (1 million or more unique visitors):
CNN Digital for CNN: Breaking US & World News
Judges’ comments: A clean, fast and easy-to-navigate app. Use of photos to encourage further engagement is well done. The ability to stream CNN live audio is also nice.
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Best mobile news app (fewer than 1 million unique visitors)
STAT for The Stat APP
Finalist: Shaw Local News Network for The Shaw Local App
Best investigative/enterprise feature (1 million or more unique visitors):
ESPN Investigative Unit/ESPN Features Unit for “Death at the U: Who killed Bryan Pata?”
Judges’ comments: Kudos to reporters working hard to solve a cold case murder. Despite enormous pushback, they were able to uncover the truth lying right under the noses of non-caring detectives and authorities.
Finalists: BostonGlobe.com for “Behind the Shield” AND The Kansas City Star for “The Promised Land”
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Best investigative/enterprise feature (fewer than 1 million unique visitors):
Call Matters for “Waiting for Justice”
Judges’ comments: Deeply reported shedding light on both pre and post pandemic judicial practices. The reporting also detailed the impact on the accused and victims alike.
Finalists: IrpiMedia, OCCRP for "The 'Ndrangheta's Little Kiss': Inside an Organized Crime Clan” AND Greg B. Smith and Yoav Gonen, THE CITY for “How New York Bungled Pandemic Medical Supply Purchase”
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Best collaborative investigative/enterprise reporting (1 million or more unique visitors):
OCCRP, Le Monde, IRPI, McClatchy/Miami Herald/El Nuevo Heraldm IStories, Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, KRIK, Bivol, Investigace.cz, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Le Soir, Woxx, Piaui, Tempo, Armando.Info, La Nacion, Inkyfada (Tunisia) for “OpenLux”
Judges’ comments: Well-crafted and stylish with an interesting lens. The global connections are thoughtfully pulled and carried throughout. Appreciate the strong start of impact and outcomes.
Finalists: NBC News, Inside Climate News and the Texas Observer for “Super Threats” AND The Marshall Project, USA TODAY Network, Arizona Republic for “US Marshals Act Like Local Police with More Violence and Less Accountability”
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Best collaborative investigative/enterprise reporting (fewer than 1 million unique visitors):
THE CITY, Type Investigations and Columbia Journalism Investigations for "NYC Nursing Home Gave Dozens of Veterans Experimental COVID-19 Treatments”
Judges’ comments: Well done.
Finalists: Wisconsin Watch, TMJ4 News for “Thousands await jobless aid as Wisconsin leaders blame each other” AND ReligionUnplugged.com and Newsreel Asia, Harshita Rathore and Vishal Arora for “Talking Religion at the Dinner Table”
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Best news or event feature (1 million or more unique visitors):
The Tennessean / USA TODAY Network for “The Christmas Day Bombing”
Judges’ comments: Great in-person on-the-scene coverage. All aspects of storytelling are on display here.
Finalists: CNN Digital for “Running as Equals: The Elite Athletes Fghting For Acceptance” AND CNN Digital for “Assault on Democracy: Paths to Insurrection”
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Best news or event feature (fewer than 1 million unique visitors):
ReligionUnplugged.com, Julia Duin, Hamil Harris, Kimberly Winston for “The Religious Roots of an Attempted Insurrection”
Judges’ comments: It was good to see religion reporters step up and tackle a national, political story. Religion and politics are very connected and very few news outlets cover politics from a religious perspective.
Finalists: Claudia Irizarry Aponte and Josefa Velasquez for “Deliveristas” AND STAT for “STAT Exposes Huge Gaps in Access”
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Best business reporting (1 million or more unique visitors):
BuzzFeed News, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and more than 100 media partners for “The FinCEN Files”
Judges’ comments: Very good interactive elements
Finalists: Fortune for “Fortune: Crypto at a Turning Point” AND CNET for “Why your iPhone may never be made in America”
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Best business reporting (fewer than 1 million unique visitors):
STAT for: “Groundbreaking Coverage of Momentous Alzheimer's Drug Approval”
Judges’ comments: Very thorough breakdown of a complex business and its relationship with the government.
Finalists: THE CITY for “New York in Job Hunt as City Seeks Economic Comeback from COVID” AND STAT for “Epic's AI Algorithms, Shielded from Scrutiny”
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Best business/finance blog (fewer than 1 million unique visitors):
InvestmentNews for “Mary Beth Franklin 'On Retirement”
Judges’ comments: Well-written description of the contents of a report of an online study of how attitudes about retirement have been affected by the pandemic.
Finalist: STAT for “Ed Silverman's enormously popular Pharmalot blog”
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Best news/political blog (1 million or more unique visitors):
Inside for “Insider's Washington Bureau”
Judges’ comments: Really good reading. Very plain from a look-and-feel standpoint but man does the content make up for it. You just keep reading and reading and reading.
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Best use of data/infographics (1 million or more unique visitors):
The Straits Times for: “Three Million masks Every Minute: How Covid-19 is Choking the Planet”
Judges’ comments: Seriously smart and impactful. It's informative without being preachy, thoughtful and straightforward simultaneously. Great job.
Finalists: Bloomberg News for “COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker” AND CNN Digital for “The Southwest's Most Important River is Drying Up”
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Best use of data/infographics (fewer than 1 million unique visitors):
THE CITY for “Meet Your Mayor”
Judges’ comments: Truly novel.
Finalist: ReligionUnplugged.com, Ryan Burge for “Plugging in the Numbers: Data Journalism on Religion and Politics”
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Best use of social media/crowd sourcing (1 million or more unique visitors):
USA Today Graphics for “USA Today Visual Investigations”
Judges’ comments: Excellent experience, well done!
Finalists: CNN Digital for “Lekki Toll Gate Shooting Investigation” AND USA Today for “Trump Outbreak Coverage”
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Best use of social media/crowd sourcing (fewer than 1 million unique visitors):
THE CITY, Columbia Journalism School & Newmark Journalism School at CUNY for “Missing Them Memorial Events”
Judges’ comments: Great use of social media to distribute and collect content, and also a great example of crowdsourcing.
Finalists: Documented for “Use of WhatsApp to Help Revive Reporting” AND ReligionUnplugged.com, Meagan Clark for “King James Resurrects the Gold Bless the USA Bible”
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Best Innovation project on a website (1 million or more unique visitors):
Fortune for “Gamified NFT Auction for a Fortune Magazine Cover”
Judges’ comments: Incredible! Building on Fortune's long legacy of collectible covers to produce not only an innovative cover image, but also to BE the story about the most innovative financial movement in a century -- wow.
Finalists: USA Today Graphics for “USA Today Visual Investigations” AND BostonGlobe.com for “Behind the Shield”
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Best innovation project on a website (fewer than 1 million unique visitors):
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for “Abuse of Trust”
Judges’ comments: Great presentation here that can make it easier to connect the dots and explore the relationships in such a complicated story.
Finalists: The Marshall Project for “The Language Project” AND THE CITY for “Meet Your Mayor”
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Best community service project/reporting (1 million or more unique visitors):
The San Diego Union-Tribune for “Social Justice Reporting Project”
Judges’ comments: Outstanding design and visual storytelling. Excellent example of a regional collaboration telling stories of their communities.
Finalists: USA TODAY Network South for “Hallowed Sound” AND The Marshall Project and NPR for “Foster Care Agencies Take Millions of Dollars Owed to Kids”
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Best community service project/reporting (fewer than 1 million unique visitors):
The Marshall Project for “Serving Incarcerated Audiences”
Judges’ comments: Powerful stories about and for incarcerated communities that will help the public's understanding of the viewpoints of individuals who are imprisoned.
Finalists: CoastalReview.org for “Paths to Resilience” AND Epicenter – NYC
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Best news or event feature video (1 million or more unique visitors):
CNN Business for “Qanon”
Judges’ comments: Fascinating, in-depth look at this issue.
Finalists: CNN for “Clarissa Ward: Taliban told me to stand to the side ' because I'm a woman” AND Jeremy Allen, Graham Media Group for “What Lies Beneath: Frontline workers battle Covid-19”
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Best news or event feature video (fewer than 1 million unique visitors)
The Brazilian Report for “The Brazilian City Being Swallowed Up from Underneath”
Judges’ comments: The scope of the salt well digging investigation is massive. The Brazilian Report broke the story and created a well-reported video with visuals and interviews that showed readers the magnitude of the problem and the aftermath.
Finalists: Bloomberg Industry Group for “When your boss is notorious: Checking for R.B.G” AND ReligionUnplugged.com and Newsreel Asia, Harshita Rathore and Vishal Arora for “Talking Religion at the Dinner Table”
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Best investigative/enterprise video (1 million or more unique visitors):
The Straits Times for “Invisible Asia Video Series”
Judges’ comments: Amazing series. This theme of "Invisible Asia" was a unique lens to learn about people living in the margins of modern life, and the first-person interviews made these relatable stories really come alive.
Finalists: CNN for “How a massacre in Tigray was captured on video” AND The Boston Globe for “A Beautiful Resistance”
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Best investigative/enterprise video (fewer than 1 million unique visitors):
STAT for “Why I Got a Colonoscopy So Young”
Judges’ comments: Impressive journalism! Interesting, factual, touching, informative and personal.
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Best sports video (1 million or more unique visitors):
CNN Sports & As Equals for “Running as equals: The elite athletes fighting for acceptance”
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Best Podcast (1 million or more unique visitors):
Orlando Sentinel for “Joel Greenberg: The Man, The Scandal, The Players”
Finalists: NBCU News Group Podcast Unit for “Southlake”
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Best podcast (fewer than 1 million unique visitors):
Bloomberg Industry Group for “Black Lawyers Speak: Stories of the Past”
Judges’ comments: Great combination of information you didn’t know (which others try to do as well), but this is combined with great storytelling, production value and pace.
Finalists: The Heist Podcast Team, Center for Public Integrity for “The Heist” AND The (Rock Hill) Herald for “Return Man”
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Best photojournalism on a website (1 million or more unique visitors):
Lianhe Zaobao, SPH Media Limited for “Remembering 2020: The Year in Pictures”
Finalists: Lianhe Zaobao, SPH Media Limited for “184 Lightning Days A Year: Experience Lightning Every Other Day” AND CNN Digital for “The Southwest's Most Important River is Drying Up”
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Best editorial/political cartoon (1 million or more unique visitors):
Mike Smith, Las Vegas Sun for “Smith’s World”
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Best editorial/political cartoon (fewer than 1 million unique visitors):
Capitol Broadcasting Company for Dennis Draughon
Finalist: The Brazilian Report
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Best incorporation of sponsored/branded content (1million or more unique visitors):
The Weather Channel for “State Farm: General Safety and Preparedness”
Judges’ comments: The stories were well-written and used relevant photographs and videos to convey the emotion of the story through images.
Finalist: WKMG News 6 for “Best of Central Florida”
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Best incorporation of sponsored/branded content (fewer than 1 million unique visitors):
Narcity Media for “Seeking Nature”
Finalist: WSLS for “In a Day’s Drive”
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Best overall website design (1 million or more unique visitors):
Block Club Chicago for: BlockClubChicago.org
Finalists: ESPN for ESPN.com AND CNN for CNN.COM/Style
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Best overall website design (fewer than 1 million unique visitors):
Las Vegas Weekly for LasVegasWeekly.com
Finalists: STAT for Statnews.com AND Religion Unplugged for ReligionUnplugged.com
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Best home page design (1 million or more unique visitors)
CNN Digital for CNN Style
Judges’ comments: Beautiful design, layout and photography. Fantastic guest profile slider. Extremely cool navigation.
Finalists: Block Club Chicago for BlockClubChicago.org AND Click on Detroit for ClickonDetroit.com
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Best home page design (fewer than 1 million unique visitors)
The Brazilian Report for Brazillian.report
Judges’ comments: Easy to navigate while packed with content. Nice use of organic SEO. Great use of value-added features.
Finalist: Religion Unplugged for ReligionUnplugged.com
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Best redesign/relaunch (1 million or more unique visitors)
Block Club Chicago for BlockClubChicago.org
Finalist: The Straits Times for Str.sg
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Best redesign/relaunch (fewer than 1 million unique visitors)
OnMilwaukee for OnMilwaukee.com
Judges’ comments: Clean site. Very appealing to the eyes. Easy to navigate.
Finalists: Shaw Local News Network for ShawLocal.com AND GGRecon
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Best website navigation design (1 million or more unique visitors):
Click2Houston for Click2Houston.com
Judges’ comment: Clean and well-done site. Readers are not overwhelmed by advertisements or pleas to join the membership program.
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Best cause marketing/corporate social responsibility campaign (1 million or more unique visitors):
News4JAX for “Positively Jax impacts Jacksonville”
Judges’ comment: An ambitious and well-done efforts. Kudos for working at scale to address multiple community needs.
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Best promotional/marketing campaign (1 million or more unique visitors)
The Dallas Morning News for “Do You Know?
Judges’ comments: Great mix of giving viewers useful and interesting info and insight while driving interest in the DMN. All in 15 seconds. Well done!
Finalists: Newsday Consumer Marketing for “Newsday Investigations” AND Las Vegas Review-Journal for “Food & Cocktail Virtual Series”
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Best promotional/marketing campaign (fewer than 1 million unique visitors)
Newsday Consumer Marketing for “Faces of Long Island”
Judges’ comments: Very in-depth campaign with its own marketing. Done clean and well and seemed to have positive reception from the community.
Best college/university campus website:
NCC News: Newhouse Communications Center Syracuse University for NCC News
Judges’ comments: From video to audio to written stories and photographs, a very nice website.
Finalists: PhiladelphiaNeighborhoods.com, Temple University: Department of Journalism for PhiladelphiaNeighborhoods.com AND Baylor University for Baylorlariat.com
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Best college/university produced community or niche website:
The Deconstructing the Divide Staff for “Deconstructing the Divide”
Judges’ comments: Excellent idea and strong execution. A variety of topics and I'm happy to see some uplifting stories, not just stories pointing out problems. Easy to navigate and great mix of stories and visuals.
Finalists: Staff of The Red Line Project – UIC for The Red Line Project AND City Newsroom 2021 for NYCityLens.com
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Best collaborative college/university & professional website:
CalMatters for CalMatters College Journalism Network
Finalist: Wisconsin Watch and UW-Madison School of Journalism & Mass Communication for “Color of Money”
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Best news story on a college/university website:
The Deconstructing the Divide Staff for “Deconstructing the Divide”
Judges’ comments: Excellent in depth, team coverage of the issue of inequality. Beautiful design work and cross platform storytelling.
Finalists: City Newsroom 2021 for “The Return: The Pandemic Recedes” AND PhiladelphiaNeighborhoods.com, Temple University: Department of Journalism for “Amateur Sports: Country's only black-owned rowing club”
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Best feature story on a college/university website:
Haillie Parker and Allie Barton/Cronkite News for “Invisible Chapters: Writing the Black community into the stories of libraries”
Judges’ comments: Excellent videos. Well-designed presentation. Nice weaving of audio, video, photographic and text to tell the story. A topic I had not heard about previously, which is always good.
Finalists: PhiladelphiaNeighborhoods.com, Temple University: Department of Journalism for “Amateur Sports: Country's only black-owned rowing club” AND Anthony J. Wallace and Megan Marples/Cronkite News for “It's creating a new normal: A Navajo school district and its students fight”
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Best video on a college/university website:
Allie Barton/Cronkite News for “Lost Chapters”
Judges’ comments: Flows very well. Engaging and using video clips of actual events to help tell the story and show facts and not just opinions. Going in-depth on a specific topic within the larger topic of civil rights. Gives off a professional vibe.
Finalists: Staff of 219West, NYCity News Service, Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY for “The Reawakening” AND The Temple News for “A Day of Action”
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Best photojournalism on a college/university website:
Alberto Mariani/Cronkite News for “A community's response: Reflections from the White Mountain Apache”
Judges’ comments: PHENOMENAL!!!!
Finalists: Alberto Mariani/Cronkite News for “Last Responders and the call to bury the dead.” AND Jessica Ruiz, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications for “Our poisoned Kids”
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Best college/university investigative/documentary:
The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism - Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication for “Little Victims Everywhere”
Judges’ comments: This is infuriating - the hallmark of a good investigative story. Clearly shows the shocking issues and uses data and human stories to drive home the problem.
Finalists: Carnegie-Knight News21 for “Unmasking America” AND Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication for “Life Is”
