WW Scores 13 Prizes in Pacific Northwest Journalism Contest

From the Department of Shameless Self-Promotion: WW received 13 prizes, including five for first place, at the Society of Professional Journalists’ Region 10 Excellence in Journalism Awards. The five-state contest covers Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.

WW’s five first prizes include general excellence for a medium-sized newsroom, which SPJ defines as six to 20 newsroom employees. For general excellence, the awards committee reviewed 10 stories produced by WW in May 2023 and compared that work to the 10 best stories produced by similarly sized newsrooms.

Other first-place awards from WW were Government Reporting for Sophie Peel’s chronicle of Shemia Fagan’s demise, LGBTQ+ Reporting for Anthony Effinger’s reporting on gender refugees arriving in Portland, and Business and Economics Reporting for Effinger and Lucas Manfield’s study of the role played by private equity in Portland’s ambulance staffing shortage. For his consideration of the Imago play My Bedroom Is an Installation, Bennett Campbell Ferguson took home the top prize for an arts review.

Here are links to the prize-winning stories, so you can read them (again).

Writing – Medium: General Excellence

Lucas Manfield, Nigel Jaquiss, Sophie Peel, Anthony Effinger, Rachel Saslow, “May 2023 Outstanding Work”, Willamette Week

Writing – Medium: Business & Economics Reporting

First Place – Anthony Effinger, Lucas Manfield, “Junk Ambulances”

Second Place – Anthony Effinger, “The Death List”

Writing – Medium: Crime & Law Enforcement Reporting

Second Place – Lucas Manfield, “Life in Hell”

Writing – Medium: Feature - Hard News

Second Place - Anthony Effinger, “They Left”

Writing – Medium: Government & Politics Reporting

First Place – Sophie Peel, “Up in Smoke”

Second Place – Nigel Jaquiss, “Track Addicts”

Writing – Medium: Health Reporting

Second Place – Nigel Jaquiss, “Free Fall”

Writing – Medium: Investigative Reporting

Second Place – Sophie Peel, “Strange Budfellows”

Writing – Medium: LGBTQ+ Equity Reporting

First Place – Anthony Effinger, “They Arrived”

Writing – Medium: Review

First Place – Bennett Campbell Ferguson, “Sorce Code”

Photo & Design – Small: General News Photography

Second Place – Mick Hangland-Skill, “Portland students support their striking teachers at City Hall”

Photo & Design – Small: Portrait Photography

Second Place – Mick Hangland-Skill, “Earl Blumenauer Will Not Run for Reelection”