WINNERS AND FINALISTS FROM THE 2020 AWARDS CONTEST
Newspaper or Digital Beat Reporting
Winner: Christopher Bing and Joel Schectman, Reuters, “Project Raven”
The finalists:
•M.B. Pell and Joshua Schneyer, Reuters, “Ambushed at Home”
•Michael Spies, The Trace and The New Yorker, “Secrecy, Self-Dealing and Greed at the NRA”
Newspaper or Digital Feature Reporting
Winner: Ryan Devereaux, The Intercept, “Bodies in the Borderland”
The finalists:
•Ese Olumhense, The City, “20 Years After Killing of Amadou Diallo, What’s Changed”
•Evan Ratliff, Insider, “The Story of Jamal Khashoggi’s Murder and How the World Looked the Other Way”
Newspaper or Digital Spot News Reporting
Winner: Ari Feldman, Jordan Kutzik, Helen Chernikoff and Irene Katz-Connelly, The Forward, “Violent Attack Upends Years of Quiet, Happy Growth in Jersey City’s Hasidic Haven”
The finalists:
•Larry Celona, The New York Post, “Jeffrey Epstein Suicide”
•Gabriella Borter and Daniel Trotta, Reuters, “New York Officer Fired, but Tensions Still High Where Eric Garner Died”
Newspaper or Digital Enterprise Reporting
Winner: Reema Amin, Chalkbeat New York, “Exposed to Lead as a Baby, Bishop Now Struggles in School. Could an Evaluation Used in Flint Help NYC Students Like Him?”
The finalists:
•Sarah Butrymowicz and Meredith Kolodner, The Hechinger Report and NBC News Digital, “‘They Just Saw Me as a Dollar Sign’: How Some Certificate Schools Profit from Vulnerable Students”
•Melissa Jeltsen, Amanda Kippert and Tara Haelle, HuffPost, “A Forgotten Crisis”
Newspaper or Digital Local News Reporting
Winner: Brian M. Rosenthal, The New York Times, “Taken for a Ride”
The finalists:
•Chip Rowe, The Highlands Current, “The Extremist Next Door”
•Thomas Maier, Newsday, “An Innocent Man?”
Reporting by Newspaper with a Circulation Under 100,000
Winner: Andrew Ford, Asbury Park Press, “Policing the Police: Exposing Deadly Chases, Lying Cops and Gender Discrimination in New Jersey Law Enforcement”
The finalists:
•Thomas Zambito, The Journal News / Lohud.com, “The Nuclear Option: Core of the Matter”
•Dustin Racioppi, The Record / NorthJersey.com, “Schools Development Authority”
Reporting by Independent Digital Media
Winner: Anna Belle Peevey, Neela Banerjee and Adrian Briscoe, InsideClimate News, “American Climate”
The finalists:
•Anna Flagg, Christie Thompson, Andrew R. Calderón and Julia Preston, The Marshall Project, “Crime and Deportation: Shining a Light on the Myths that Drive Our Immigration System”
•Josh Dzieza, The Verge, “In Amazon’s Shadow: The Unseen Workers, Entrepreneurs and Hustlers Who Stock Amazon’s Shelves”
Magazine Personal Service
Winner: Esmé Deprez, Bloomberg Businessweek, “Sun Burned”
The finalists:
•Leslie Goldman, Amy Brightfield and Stephen Orr, Better Homes and Gardens, “What Someone with Depression Wants You to Know”
•Jess Pels and Andrea Stanley, Cosmopolitan, “How to Go to Rehab”
Magazine Profile
Winner: Jamie Ducharme, TIME, “The Face of Change”
The finalists:
•Jessica Pels and Andrea Stanley, Cosmopolitan, “The Savant”
•Kayla Webley Adler, Marie Claire, “Mother. Doctor. Wife. Addict.”
Magazine Investigative Reporting
Winner: Rachel Rabkin Peachman, Joel Keehn, Jen Shecter, Margot Gilman and Andy Bergmann, Consumer Reports, “The Rise and Fall of Inclined Sleepers”
The finalists:
•Anna Edney, Susan Berfield and Margaret Newkirk, Bloomberg Businessweek, “Tainted Pills, Broken Trust”
•Sharon Guynup, Steve Winter and Riley Champine, National Geographic, “The Tigers Next Door”
Magazine Feature Reporting
Winner: Emily Raboteau, The New York Review of Books, “Climate Signs”
The finalists:
•Sharon Guynup, Steve Winter and Riley Champine, National Geographic, “The Tigers Next Door”
•Andy Greenberg, WIRED, “The Untold Story of the 2018 Olympics Cyberattack, the Most Deceptive Hack in History”
Arts Reporting
Winner: Peter Maass, The Intercept, “A Prize for Lies”
The finalists:
•Simi Horwitz, The Hollywood Reporter, “Marriage Story and the Evolution of the Divorce Film”
•Joe Coscarelli and Melena Ryzik, The New York Times, “Ryan Adams Dangled Success. Women Say They Paid a Price.”
Sports Reporting
Winner: Baxter Holmes, ESPN.com, “’These Kids Are Ticking Time Bombs’: The Threat of Youth Basketball”
The finalists:
•Natalie Weiner, SB Nation, “The Line of Fire”
•Ben Reiter, Sports Illustrated, “The Hate Magnet”
Business Feature
Winner: Erika Fry, Fortune, “Epidemic of Fear”
The finalists:
•Virginia Eubanks, The Guardian US and The Economic Hardship Reporting Project, “Zombie Debts Are Hounding Struggling Americans. Will You Be Next?”
•Marcus Stern, Pat Maddox, Kait Parker and Charlotte Kesl, The Weather Channel / Weather.com, “Harvest: Recovery and Risk after Hurricane Michael”
Business Investigative Reporting
Winner: Katherine Blunt, Russell Gold and Rebecca Smith, The Wall Street Journal, “How PG&E Burned California”
The finalists:
•Staff, Bloomberg News, “Alexa’s Listeners”
•Nancy Solomon, Jeff Pillets, Michael Mishak, David Lewis and Marilyn Thompson, WNYC and ProPublica, “The Real Bosses of New Jersey”
Science, Technology, Medical or Environmental Reporting
Winner: Caroline Chen, ProPublica, “Heartless Hospital”
The finalists:
•Erika Fry and Fred Schulte, Fortune and Kaiser Health News, “Death by a Thousand Clicks”
•Matt Sandy, TIME, “The Amazon Rain Forest Is Nearly Gone. We Went to the Front Lines to See if it Could be Saved”
Opinion Writing
Winner: Stuart A. Thompson, Charlie Warzel and Alex Kingsbury, The New York Times, “One Nation, Tracked”
The finalist:
•Andrea Pitzer, The New York Review of Books, “‘Some Suburb of Hell’: America’s New Concentration Camp System”
Spot News Photo
Winner: Matthew Abbott, The New York Times, “Wildfire”
The finalists:
•Dieu Nalio Chery and Rebecca Blackwell, The Associated Press, “Haiti: Nation on the Brink”
•Evgenia Arbugaeva, TIME, “Greta Thunberg Meets the Press”
Sports Photo
Winner: J. Conrad Williams, Newsday, “Head Over Heels”
The finalists:
•Alex Brandon, The Associated Press, “Offensive Guard”
•Jason Potterton, Julianne Varacchi and Joe Amon, ESPN, “Amanda Nunes”
Feature Photo
Winner: James Nachtwey, TIME, “Rohingya”
The finalists:
•Rodrigo Abd, The Associated Press, “Venezuela: On The Edge”
•Moises Saman, TIME, “‘No Friends but the Mountains.’ What Life Looks Like for the Kurds of Syria, Now That the U.S. Has Pulled Back”
Multimedia, Interactive Graphics, and Animation
Winner: Cynthia McFadden, Christine Romo, Lisa Cavazuti, Rich Schapiro, Anna Brand, Jiachuan Wu and Robin Muccari, NBC News, “‘Zone Rouge’: An Army of Children Toils in African Mines”
The finalists:
•Staff, Newsday, “Long Island Divided”
•Almudena Toral, Patricia Clarembaux and Mauricio Rodriguez Pons, Univision with TIME and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, “In El Salvador, Violence Is Driving Girls to Kill Themselves”
Digital Innovation
Winner: Staff, Newsday, “Long Island Divided”
The finalists:
•Emily Kassie, The Marshall Project with The Guardian US, “Detained”
•Brian Freskos, The Trace and The New Yorker, “Easy Targets”
Radio or Audio Spot News Reporting
Winner: News Team, WCBS-AM, “The Jersey City Shooting”
The finalist:
•Kevin DeLany, Westwood One, “Mass Shootings in El Paso and Dayton”
Radio or Audio Feature Reporting
Winner: Harry Siegel, Christina Greer and Alexandria Lynn, FAQ NYC, “Talking About Pictures”
The finalists:
•Wendy Zukerman, Meryl Horn, Rose Rimler, Kaitlyn Sawrey and Blythe Terrell, Gimlet Media, “Science vs. the Abortion Underground”
•Carole Zimmer, Nick Ciavatta and Jackson Bierfeldt, Now What?, “Joe Biden’s Life Lessons”
Radio or Audio Investigative Reporting
Winner: Seth Freed Wessler and Alissa Escarce, Mother Jones, Latino USA and Type Investigations, “Marshals’ Lawlessness”
The finalists:
•Staff, ProPublica and WNYC, “Trump, Inc.”
Digital Video Reporting
Winner: Paul Moakley and Moises Saman, TIME, “When the News Hits Home”
The finalists:
•Alexa Liautaud, Casey Silvestri, Kevin Urgiles, James Surdam and Jordan Malter, NBC News Now, “Why Are There So Many More Crisis Pregnancy Centers than Abortion Clinics?”
•Almudena Toral, Patricia Clarembaux, Mauricio Rodriguez Pons, Justine Simons and Jose Osuna, Univision and TIME, “Extreme Violence is Driving Girls to Kill Themselves”
National TV Feature
Winner: Lee Cowan, Sari Aviv, Remington Korper and Rand Morrison, CBS Sunday Morning, “Critical Condition”
The finalists:
•Staff, ABC News Nightline, “Finding My Child”
•Staff, Spectrum News, “Untangled: The Price of Progress”
National TV Series or Investigative
Winner: Cynthia McFadden, Christine Romo, Lisa Cavazuti and Bill Angelucci, NBC News, “‘Zone Rouge’: An Army of Children Toils in African Mines”
The finalists:
•Mark Fainaru-Wada, Mike Kessler, Greg Amante, Tonya Malinowski and Mike Drago, ESPN, “The Squad: 44 Years, 41 Allegations”
•Cynthia McFadden, Conor Ferguson, ShanShan Dong and Richard Schapiro, NBC News, “Marijuana Vaping Investigation”
National TV Spot News Reporting
Winner: Patrick Oppmann and Jake Tapper, CNN: The Lead with Jake Tapper, “Hurricane Dorian Devastates The Bahamas”
The finalists:
•Staff, ABC News, “El Paso Shooting”
•Staff, ABC News, “Notre Dame Inferno”
Local TV Feature
Winner: Staff, Spectrum News NY1, “Street Level: Victory Boulevard”
The finalists:
•Leisha Majtan, Dan Keese, Kristi-Lee Neuberger and Dan Komarinetz, Spectrum News NY1, “The Keeper of the Flame”
•Leisha Majtan, Dan Keese and Pat Kiernan, Spectrum News NY1, “Margaret and Helaine”
Local TV Series or Investigative
Winner: Karin Attonito, Anthony Cocco and Walt Kane, News 12 New Jersey, “Kane In Your Corner: Bullied in School”
The finalists:
•Bobby Cuza, Shanel Dawson and Dan Komarinetz, Spectrum News NY1, “Looking to London: A Road Map for Congestion Pricing”
•Courtney Gross, Dan Keese and Dan Komarinetz, Spectrum News NY1, “Out of Service: NY1 Investigation Finds Chronic Elevator Outages Plague NYCHA”
Local TV Spot News
Winner: Amy Morris, Steven Bognar, Adam Kuperstein, Eddie Alonzo and Jonathan Dienst, WNBC, “Jersey City Shootout”
The finalists:
•Staff, Spectrum News NY1, “Midtown Helicopter Crash”
•Staff, Spectrum News NY1, “The Firing of Officer Daniel Pantaleo”
Daniel Pearl Prize for Investigative Reporting
Winner: Staff, The Wall Street Journal, “How Amazon Puts Us at Risk”
The finalists:
•Michael H. Keller, Gabriel J.X. Dance and Nellie Bowles, The New York Times, “Exploited”
•Dan Levine, Benjamin Lesser, Jaimi Dowdell, Lisa Girion and Michelle Conlin, Reuters, “Hidden Injustice”
The Mosaic Award
Winner: Staff, ABC News Nightline, “Am I Next?”
The finalists:
•Wayne Drehs, ESPN.com, “Rob Mendez”
•Geraldine Sealey, Eli Hagar, Jennifer Toon, Sergio Hill and Daniel Adams, The Marshall Project, “Life Inside”
The Les Payne Award for Coverage on Communities of Color
Winner: Sarah Ryley, Jeremy Singer-Vine and Sean Campbell, The Trace and BuzzFeed News, “Free to Shoot Again”
The finalists:
•Oliver Laughland and Jamiles Lartey, The Guardian US, “Cancer Town”
•Staff, Newsday, “Long Island Divided”
Public Service Award
Winner: Staff, Newsday, “Long Island Divided”
The finalists:
•Andrew Ford, Asbury Park Press, “Policing the Police: Exposing Deadly Chases, Lying Cops and Gender Discrimination in New Jersey Law Enforcement”
•Staff, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, The Intercept, NBC News, Univision, WNYC and Latin American media partners, “Solitary Voices”
Questions? Please direct any comments to awards@deadlineclub.org.
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The Deadline Club Awards Contest opens for entries on Thursday, January 2, 2020.
The annual journalism competition covers all work published in 2019. There are 36 categories covering all media formats. A third category covering radio and audio reporting has been added to this year’s contest. Headline writing has been dropped.
CLICK HERE FOR CATEGORY DESCRIPTIONS
This year, there are two contest deadlines. The first deadline is Friday, February 7, at 11:59 p.m. and the fee is $75 per entry. After February 7, the fee is $100 per entry and the final deadline is Friday, February 14, at 11:59 p.m.
Our contest is managed by BetterBNC, and requires contestants to create an Open Call Contestant account before they are able to enter. More information on how to enter this year’s contest is available via this link:
CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE DEADLINE CLUB AWARDS CONTEST
Complete rules and eligibility requirements are listed below:
Deadline: The first entry deadline is 11:59 p.m. Friday, February 7. Entries submitted after Friday, February 7, will be $100 per entry. The final deadline to submit entries is Friday, February 14 at 11:59 p.m.
Payment: The cost is $75 per entry before 11:59 p.m. February 7, and $100 per entry for any entry submitted between 11:59 p.m. February 7 and 11:59 p.m. February 14. An entry will not be judged unless the fee has been paid in full by the entry deadline. The fee may be paid using a credit card after completing the entry process on this website. If paying by check, it must be payable to The Deadline Club and the envelope must be postmarked by the entry deadline, and mailed to : The Deadline Club, c/o Salmagundi Club, 47 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10003. When mailing a check, please include the entry fees page showing how many entries were made for your organization on the contest entry system.
A work may be submitted to more than one category, but a separate entry fee must be paid for each category entered.
Provide full contact information for the primary contact, whether that is a contest coordinator or the entrant. This should include the individual’s name, organization, e-mail address, snail mail address and phone number. If possible, please provide a backup contact, and indicate if another contact should be notified about making plans to attend the awards dinner, where the winners will be announced.
Entrants must be employees of or freelancers for news organizations with an office within a 50-mile radius of Columbus Circle in New York City.
Entries must have been published or aired in 2019.
Content of entries may not be altered from original publication or broadcast, except for shortening as specified in the radio and television categories.
Entries originally published or aired in a language other than English may be submitted if the original and an exact translation into English are supplied.
Any corrections, clarifications or retractions made after initial publishing or broadcast must be submitted as part of the entry. Also, copies of any written challenges to the report’s accuracy sent to the entrant or the news organization by or on behalf of those mentioned – including but not limited to letters, emails or legal papers – must be included with the entry. Any responses by the news organization should also be included.
If you choose to include a cover letter, let it speak for you. Explain why you believe your entry is the finest example of journalism in its category. Entries will be judged on fairness, balance and accuracy; thoroughness, timeliness and clarity; news language and technical skills exhibited; enterprise, resourcefulness and obstacles overcome; effort involved in preparation; and the story’s interest and importance to the public. Entries will be judged by experienced journalists.
In some cases, they may decide that a category merits no winners.
Judges reserve the right to move an entry to another category.
Category Rules
The newspaper and digital categories, including the Daniel Pearl Award for Investigative Reporting, are open to all newspapers, wire services and digital media outlets. These categories are not open to articles originally created for print magazines, which may be submitted to the magazine categories, or to audiovisual programs, which may be submitted to the audio and video categories.
The magazine categories are open to magazines with general circulations, magazine sections of newspapers, Sunday supplements and any digital media affiliated with these publications.
The radio and audio reporting category is open to radio and satellite networks, local radio stations and digital media. Original programs may include podcasts, and may be edited to the required length.
The digital video reporting category is open to all audiovisual media produced originally for digital distribution.
The television categories are open to broadcast and cable television networks and local stations. Original programs may be edited to the required length.
The categories open to all media include written, audio or video entries distributed through print, broadcast or digital media outlets.
Technical Requirements
Allowable files types are pdf, txt, doc, jpg, gif, png, docx.
Video and audio entries must be submitted in the form of URLs – they cannot be uploaded to the contest site. If the entries are not already available online, they can be uploaded to a hosting site such as YouTube, Vimeo or Kiwi 6 (audio only).
*Those who wish to submit an entry via a URL link have the following options:
1. Print out article(s) to PDF format and submit article(s) so it can easily be accessed from our servers for offline review. (preferred)
2. Copy and paste article(s) in a word document and submit.
3. Place URL link(s) inside a word document.