Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: The Post-Crescent Entry Title: Grocery inflation impacts work of local food pantries/ Are residents saving money after Target announced new prices/ Purchasing groceries can be expensive in Wisconsin Entry Credit: Jelissa Burns Judge Comment: As personal budgets tighten, so does altruism. People shift focus to their own welfare. Using sourced statistics and perspectives, the reporter wrote a convincing series about inflation’s cost to both individuals and society. Reading her grocery list in the third and final story made me licking my lips, especially for Cheez-Its. Gumshoe reporting rarely fails.
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: Green Bay Press-Gazette Entry Title: Localizing the housing crisis: Change agents / 'Model for the nation' / 'A rollercoaster ride' Entry Credit: Jeff Bollier, Genevieve Redsten Judge Comment: Reporter Bollier made the often confusing and boring topic of real estate compelling. For that alone he deserved something. For doing it well, he earns my vote for a first-place award. Chopping the stories into subsections made it easier to comprehend and categorize what can often be a stultifying topic
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: The Cap Times Entry Title: Trump wants to end tip taxes. Wisconsin restaurant workers shrug. Entry Credit: Andrew Bahl Judge Comment: Reporter obtained local sources to put faces to national labor statistics and proposed federal policies.
Place Name: Honorable Mention Contestant Name: The Gazette Entry Title: 2024 National Conventions Entry Credit: Gazette Staff Judge Comment: A trio of valid, undramatic and sensationalized previews of the Milwaukee convention provide perspective, review the issues and, in the last of the stories, insight into what it takes to maintain law and order and such events. An unsentimental honorable mention edged out a competator's restrospective of the civil rights movement.
