2015 Awards

Coverage of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, the Baltimore riots in the wake of Freddie Gray’s death and the shootings in Canadian Parliament took top honors Saturday night at the 2015 Online Journalism Awards, which ended the 2015 Online News Association Conference. Continue reading the full press release and see the recorded ceremony.

KNIGHT AWARD FOR PUBLIC SERVICE

Winner:

• BBC WhatsApp Ebola News Service, BBC World Service, BBC News

Finalists:

• Criminalizing Kids, The Center for Public Integrity with Reveal Radio
• Losing Ground, ProPublica and The Lens
• Till Death Do Us Part, The Post and Courier

GENERAL EXCELLENCE IN ONLINE JOURNALISM, SMALL

Winner:

• kbia.org, KBIA News

Finalists:

• civilbeat.com, Honolulu Civil Beat
• minnpost.com, MinnPost
• texastribune.org, The Texas Tribune

GENERAL EXCELLENCE IN ONLINE JOURNALISM, MEDIUM

Winner:

• qz.com, Quartz

Finalists:

• propublica.org, ProPublica
• revealnews.org, The Center for Investigative Reporting

GENERAL EXCELLENCE IN ONLINE JOURNALISM, LARGE

Winner:

• washingtonpost.com, The Washington Post

Finalists:

• BostonGlobe.com, The Boston Globe
• lanacion.com.ar, LA NACION (Argentina)
• nytimes.com, The New York Times

GANNETT FOUNDATION AWARD FOR TECHNICAL INNOVATION IN THE SERVICE OF DIGITAL JOURNALISM

Winner:

• AI2HTML, The New York Times

Finalists:

• Pulp: AJAM’s Open Source Comics Platform, Al Jazeera America Digital
• Proximity Alerts, The Breaking News team

BREAKING NEWS, SMALL

Winner:

• Charlie Hebdo Real-Time Coverage, reported.ly

Finalist:

• Amtrak 188 Crash, Billy Penn

BREAKING NEWS, MEDIUM

Winner:

• Baltimore Riots and the Freddie Gray Case, The Baltimore Sun Staff

Finalists:

• Baltimore Riots, Mashable
• Parliament Hill Siege, The Canadian Press

BREAKING NEWS, LARGE

Winner:

• Ottawa Shooting, The Globe and Mail

Finalists:

• AJAM’s Coverage of Amtrak Crash, Al Jazeera America Digital
• The Death of Alberto Nisman, Redacción de Clarín
• Germanwings, The New York Times
• Walter Scott, The Post and Courier, postandcourier.com

PLANNED NEWS/EVENTS, SMALL

• No finalists

PLANNED NEWS/EVENTS, MEDIUM

Winner:

• #MakeAlCare — The Evolution of One Voter, KPCC, Southern California Public Radio

Finalists:

• Echoes from the Jungle, The Virginian-Pilot
• The Scar of the City, Berliner Morgenpost

PLANNED NEWS/EVENTS, LARGE

Winner:

• Election Party!, NPR Visuals

Finalists:

• Midterm Election Coverage, Al Jazeera America Digital
• Midterm Elections, The New York Times
• The Norwegian Victims of WW2, Verdens Gang, Norway
• The Senate Report on the CIA’s Interrogation Program, The Washington Post

EXPLANATORY REPORTING, SMALL

Winner:

• Undrinkable, The Texas Tribune

Finalists:

• An Impossible Choice, inewsource
• InfoGuide: The Sunni-Shia Divide, Council on Foreign Relations
• The Long Reach of Childhood Trauma, The Connecticut Mirror, ctmirror.org

EXPLANATORY REPORTING, MEDIUM

Winners (tie):

• The 45-Minute Mystery of Freddie Gray’s Death, The Baltimore Sun
• What Does Gun Violence Really Cost?, Mother Jones

Finalists:

• Check 2016,Newsy
• Climate Change in Minnesota, MPR News

EXPLANATORY REPORTING, LARGE

Winners (tie):

• Bees at the Brink, Star Tribune
• Drugging our Kids, San Jose Mercury News/Bay Area News Group

Finalists:

• Ebola, The New York Times
• Saving Cyla, The Globe and Mail

TOPICAL REPORTING, SMALL

Winner:

• Hurting for Work, The Texas Tribune

Finalists:

• The Broadband Industry Beat, The Center for Public Integrity
• ‘Dark Money’ in America, The Center for Public Integrity
• Nieman Journalism Lab, Nieman Journalism Lab
• NHPR: Abuse And Neglect at Lakeview, NHPR
• StateImpact Pennsylvania: Energy, Environment, Economy, StateImpact Pennsylvania

TOPICAL REPORTING, MEDIUM

Winner:

• The Broken Hip, KERA News

Finalists:

• Alcohol’s Hold on Campus, The Chronicle of Higher Education
• Retronaut: Time Travel Through Photography, Mashable
• State of Health, KQED News

TOPICAL REPORTING, LARGE

Winner:

• A Year of Legal Marijuana, The Denver Post

Finalists:

• Ebola Outbreak, NPR
• The Future of Food, National Geographic
• Vaccinations in L.A. County, Los Angeles Times

ONLINE COMMENTARY, SMALL

Winner:

• Dispatches From Syria: Marcell Shehwaro on Life in Aleppo, Global Voices

Finalist:

• Informing Public Debate with Knowledge-Based Journalism, Alfred Hermida, Graduate School of Journalism, University of British Columbia

ONLINE COMMENTARY, MEDIUM

• No finalists

ONLINE COMMENTARY, LARGE

Winner:

• Transgender Today Community Page, The New York Times

Finalists:

• Susie Cagle and Al Jazeera America Online Community, Susie Cagle & Al Jazeera America Digital
• Vox’s Todd VanDerWerff’s Cultural Criticism, Vox.com, Vox Media

FEATURE, SMALL

Winner:

• The Martian Diaries: What If the Curiosity Rover Kept a Scrapbook?, Science News

Finalists:

• Disappearing Rio Grande, The Texas Tribune
• You’re 16. You’re a Pedophile. You Don’t Want to Hurt Anyone. What Do You Do Now?, Matter

FEATURE, MEDIUM

Winner:

• Stickup Kid, FRONTLINE

Finalists:

• Betrayed by Silence: The Investigation, MPR News
• M29 — The Bus Route of Contrasts, Berliner Morgenpost
• The NRA’s Murder Mystery, Mother Jones

FEATURE, LARGE

Winner:

• Beyond the Border, The Texas Observer and The Guardian US

Finalists:

• Chasing Bayla, The Boston Globe
• Kim’s Choice, The Globe and Mail
• Passwords, The New York Times
• Spain: 253 Billion Euros Under the Table, El Mundo

SPORTS, SMALL

• No finalists

SPORTS, MEDIUM

Winner:

• Girls Fight Out, Taffy Brodesser-Akner for Matter

Finalist:

• Dynasty: UConn Women’s Basketball 10-Title Reign, Hartford Courant

SPORTS, LARGE

Winner:

• World Cup, The New York Times

Finalists:

• Boston Globe Sports, The Boston Globe / BostonGlobe.com
• Dawn Wall, The New York Times
• The Mayweather vs. Pacquiao Fight, Los Angeles Times

STUDENT PROJECTS, SMALL

Winner:

• Mobile Health: Apps for Every Age and Ouch, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism

Finalists:

• Loud Austin – The Live Music Capital with a Loud Music Problem, School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University
• The Trails of Trash, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, University of Southern California
• Wiped, Flashed, and Rekitted: The International Black Market of Stolen Cell Phones, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism

STUDENT PROJECTS, LARGE

Winner:

• The Missing, NYCity News Service Staff/CUNY Graduate School of Journalism

Finalists:

• Counterfeit Ed, NYCity News Service
• The Kenny “Zulu” Whitmore Case, The Medill Justice Project
• #WhatAreTheChances?, Journalism Broadcast Sheridan College

STUDENT PROJECTS, PRO-AM

Winner:

• Gun Wars: A News21 Investigation of Rights and Regulations in America, Arizona State University, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism

Finalists:

• Assault on Justice, WAMU88.5 News, Investigative Reporting Workshop and Reveal Project Teams
• Powering a Nation: Whole Hog, The Power of Pork, School of Media and Journalism, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

THE AL NEUHARTH INNOVATION IN INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM AWARD, SMALL

Winner:

• Profiting from Prisoners, The Center for Public Integrity

Finalists:

• No other finalists

THE AL NEUHARTH INNOVATION IN INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM AWARD, MEDIUM

Winner:

• The Dark Side of the Strawberry, The Center for Investigative Reporting

Finalists:

• Undue Force, The Baltimore Sun
• Up in Flames, San Antonio Express-News

THE AL NEUHARTH INNOVATION IN INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM AWARD, LARGE

Winner:

• Evicted and Abandoned: The World Bank’s Broken Promise to the Poor, The Center for Public Integrity’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, The Huffington Post and Media Partners
• Insult to Injury: America’s Vanishing Worker Protections, ProPublica and NPR

Finalists:

• Game of Chicken, The Oregonian/OregonLive.com
• The Secret Casualties of Iraq’s Abandoned Chemical Weapons, The New York Times

EXCELLENCE AND INNOVATION IN VISUAL DIGITAL STORYTELLING, SMALL

• No finalists

EXCELLENCE AND INNOVATION IN VISUAL DIGITAL STORYTELLING, MEDIUM

Winner:

• Space Business, Quartz

Finalist:

• Being 12, WNYC

EXCELLENCE AND INNOVATION IN VISUAL DIGITAL STORYTELLING, LARGE

Winner:

• Markets & Finance Interactive Graphics, The Wall Street Journal

Finalists:

• A Global Guide to the First World War — Interactive Documentary, The Guardian and Kiln
• Look At This, NPR
• The N-Word, The Washington Post

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA AWARD IN INVESTIGATIVE DATA JOURNALISM, SMALL/MEDIUM

Winner:

• Trouble with Taxes, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Finalists:

• Ballot Watch, FRONTLINE
• Unsolved Homicides, Los Angeles News Group
• Who’s Trying to Influence Your Vote?: Tracking TV Ad Wars in the 2014 Election, The Center for Public Integrity

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA AWARD IN INVESTIGATIVE DATA JOURNALISM, LARGE

Winner:

• Missed Signs, Fatal Consequences: How Texas Missed Deadly Patterns and Key Pieces of Information that Could Have Helped Protect Vulnerable Children, Austin American-Statesman

Finalists:

• Medicare Unmasked, The Wall Street Journal
• Stop and Seize, The Washington Post
• Swiss Leaks: Murky Cash Sheltered by Bank Secrecy, The Center for Public Integrity’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Le Monde, The Guardian and 64 Media Partners

2015 Rich Jaroslovsky Founder Award

Dori J. Maynard

2015 James Foley Award for Conflict Reporting

Cengiz Yar