The Reporting Project staff was awarded five first-place awards and three second-place awards in the Society of Professional Journalists’ “Best of Ohio” contest, including best general news website among all professional, digital-only publications across the state.
The Reporting Project is a nonprofit news organization staffed by the students and faculty of Denison University’s Journalism Program, and its stories about people, places and events in Licking County are available free online. They also are available free to other news organizations that wish to publish them, so Reporting Project stories regularly appear in such publications as The Columbus Dispatch, The Advocate in Newark and The Granville Sentinel, and their websites.
Best of Ohio awards announced in July were presented Saturday, Aug. 24, in Cleveland at an event hosted by the Society of Professional Journalists chapters in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus.
Jack Shuler, director of the Denison Journalism Program and a founder of The Reporting Project, said the awards are an affirmation of the community service being provided by The Reporting Project and the good work being done by the student journalists and faculty.
“We work hard daily to tell the interesting and important stories about people and places, and breaking news in Licking County,” Shuler said. “We are grateful to see that good work honored by our peers in journalism with these awards.”
Judges wrote that “The Reporting Project is what happens when great web design meets powerful journalism. The site is rich with color, well-organized, and wants to catch the reader’s eye. The drop-down categories at the top of the webpage are succinct and well-placed. The logo also lends a memorable brand and flavor to a specific place. Most importantly, the Reporting Project’s web page organizes its stories like a list of priorities and knows which should clearly matter more to the reader.”
In nominating The Reporting Project for best general news site, Alan Miller, professor of practice in Denison’s Journalism Program, wrote that not only do students and faculty work together to produce stories in text, photos, video and audio to fill gaps in local news coverage, the nonprofit news organization also coordinates with local media outlets to leverage our collective assets and serve Licking County residents with as much news and as many features as possible.
Miller also noted in the nomination letter that The Reporting Project collaborated with the League of Women Voters of Licking County to develop and manage The Observers Collaborative, which is a joint effort to recruit, train and deploy volunteer observers to attend meetings of local public bodies and report what they see and hear.
“These volunteers are filling the void left by budget cuts in newsrooms that once would have sent reporters to cover many of these meetings,” Miller wrote. “Their reports are public, and The Reporting Project links to The Observers Collaborative from its website and weekly newsletter to keep our community informed about the specific actions – or inactions – of local government.”
And finally, Miller noted that “at the same time we are providing this journalistic community service, we also are providing our students with real-world experience and tangible evidence of their good work. We set high standards for our journalism and have found a very appreciative audience in Licking County, where news consumers are hungry for more news about what’s happening in their community.”
Jack Wolf, a journalism major from Granville and a junior at Denison, won first place for Best News Story and second place for Best Investigative Reporting for breaking the story about asphalt plants proposed for the village of Alexandria and follow-up stories with community reaction of outrage to that proposal and subsequent proposals for two concrete-mixing plants that would have flanked the village of 500 residents. Also included in the entry was a story about a conflict of interest involving a local official who would have been in a position to vote on zoning issues affecting the asphalt plants, including one proposed for property she owns. The official resigned from a local zoning board as a result.
Judges wrote that, “Simply put, Wolf’s work is excellent. Wolf not only enterprises an important story with significant public interest, but follows through to the end, including the impact the reporting had.”
The Reporting Project staff won first place for Best Business/Technology Reporting in part for coverage of the ripple effects on the Licking County community of Intel’s construction of a $28 billion campus in New Albany and just south of Johnstown to manufacture computer chips. The entry also included stories that show the wide range of business coverage by The Reporting Project – from a feature about Aladdin, a classic diner and a fixture in downtown Granville for decades, to a news story about how the evacuation of a motel left dozens of people homeless and local social service agencies scrambling to help them.
Jack Shuler won two first-place awards for columns he wrote for Matter News in Columbus, another digital publication, about harm reduction and the addiction crisis. Shuler won for Best Editorial/Criticism and Best Digital/Freelance Writer.
Judges wrote, “Powerful writing. Shuler masterfully uses details and spare language to create scenes, then backs them up with research and data.”
Other second-place awards went to Denison senior journalism majors Brin Glass and Andrew Theophilus.
Glass won for Best Arts/Entertainment Reporting for stories about a children’s theater troupe, a local art-center leader and volunteers who clean and maintain the artfully inscribed tombstones at one of the oldest cemeteries in Licking County.
“Brin’s work has helped inform and entertain readers with stories about arts and culture in Licking County that otherwise would go untold,” said Julia Lerner, managing editor of The Reporting Project. “Her reporting is thoughtful and engaging, and this award is well-deserved.”
Theophilus won Best Videographer for a multimedia story about a U.S. Air Force veteran, retired Maj. Ray Bower of Newark, who flew combat missions in the Vietnam War and wanted to fly a plane one more time on his 90th birthday.
“Theo has dedicated himself to multimedia, especially his video work, and he worked especially hard on this story,” said Doug Swift, professor of Journalism and English at Denison and a member of The Reporting Project staff. “It’s gratifying to see him acknowledged for his skill and hard work.”