Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: Amery Free Press Entry Title: Groups spends thousands on non-partisan county board election Entry Credit: Raymond Rivard, Tom Stangl Judge Comment: I’d have punched up the lede to flash the issue of political types hiding behind mailers. And been more aggressive with the funders despite their unwillingness to comment. But that’s me. The owner of the paper for which I report tells me I try to put “too many nails in the coffin.”
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: Amery Free Press Entry Title: School board censures Vierkandt, School board meeting ends with accusations, Source of alleged political email not Doerfler Entry Credit: Tom Stangl, Justin Runberg Judge Comment: The school district may not want public information released to the public, but fortunately the newspaper does
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: The Freedom Pursuit Entry Title: Child Fentanyl Death Entry Credit: Angie Griepentrog Judge Comment: This isn’t all that investigative, in the typical sense investigative journalism has come to mean. So what. Congrats to the reporter for beating the town, so to speak, but reporting news from police reports is routine. Warning: Cribbing information from other media outlets, as is reported in part two of the submission, isn’t kosher.
