DFMies: July 2013 winners
Join Steve Buttry as he announces Digital First Media's award-winning stories and journalists for the month of July, 2013.
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The liveblog announcement of the winners of the July DFMies will start shortly at 2 p.m. Eastern time. -
Welcome to the announcement of the winners of the DFMies for the best journalism from Digital First Media newsrooms in July. We’ll hear from each of the winners shortly, but let’s start with an overview from DFM Editor in Chief Jim Brady:
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Before I bring in the winners individually to discuss their work, I’ll announce them all.
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In the Texas/New Mexico cluster, Bob Moore, Aaron Bracamontes and Dave Burge of the El Paso Times win the DFMie for breaking and advancing a story about a radioactive bunker at Fort Bliss. Other Tex/Mex finalists were Stella Davis and Natalie Gross of the Carlsbad Current-Argus for their Black Gold Brides series and Lindsey Anderson of the Las Cruces Sun-News (a June DFMie winner) for a report on teen drug use in New Mexico.
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Brandie Kessler and Jason Plotkin of the York Daily Record win the DFMie for their story about Barbara Myers, a transgender Civil War re-enactor at the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. Other finalists in the Pennsylvania/New Jersey/West Virginia cluster were Robin Layton of the Public Opinion in Chambersburg, Pa., for a photo engagement project and Dan Clark and Gene Walsh of the Times Herald in Norristown, Pa., for their coverage of a fire.
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In the Northeast, Jennifer Swift is the DFMie winner after being two of the three finalists. She won for reporting for the New Haven Register on misconduct in the East Haven police department and for a report for Connecticut magazine on corruption in state government. The other Northeast finalist was Grant Welker of the Lowell Sun for his coverage of the effort to remove a local CEO.
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Another Sun, in San Bernardino, wins the DFMie for the Los Angeles News Group with “Ghost Town,” an update by Jim Steinberg and Rachel Luna on Hinkley, Calif., the town made famous in the movie “Erin Brockovich.”
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The Marin Independent Journal wins the DFMie in Northern California for reporting by freelance columnist Dick Spotswood and reporter Richard Halstead that led to the felony arrest of the former manager of a local sewage agency. Other NorCal finalists were the Monterey Herald for its project, “Slow Burn: Clearing Fort Ord,” and Chico Enterprise-Record photojournalists Jason Halley and Bill Husa for Media Center photo galleries on a park and a neighborhood.
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The Pioneer Press wins the DFMie for the Midwest cluster for its storytelling package, Target Field: A Day in the Life, by C.J. Sinner, John Autey and Brian Murphy. Other Midwest finalists were the News-Herald in Willoughby, Ohio, for its engagement and coverage on a community event, the Johnnycake Jog, and the Oakland Press, Macomb Daily and Heritage Newspapers for a project on crime rates in their Michigan communities (assisted by the Thunderdome data team).
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In the Bay Area News Group, photojournalists John Green and Aric Crabb win the DFMie for their photo coverage of the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 at San Francisco International Airport. Other BANG finalists are Paul Rogers for reporting on the explosion in the seagull population in the San Francisco Bay area and reporter Mike Rosenberg and data analyst Daniel J. Willis for their analysis of the pay of Bay Area Rapid Transit workers.
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In the Colorado/Utah cluster, Tom Harvey and Robert Gehrke win their second DFMie for coverage of a scandal surrounding the attorney general. This report revealed a conflict of interests by a legislator appointed to lead an investigation of the AG. Other finalists in the cluster were the Loveland Reporter-Herald for coverage of a fire and Nan Chalat of the Park City Record for an engagement project, “Park City’s Best.”
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Judges for the July DFMies were our June winners: John Haeger, Nick Will Kurt Wanfried, Scott Blancard, Eileen Joyce, Marc Charisse, Gina Dvorak, Miriam Velazquez, Chuck Bennett, Ashley Gebb, Lindsey Anderson, Craig F. Walker, Lisa Kennedy, Mahala Gaylord, Paul Kampe and Megan Semeraz.
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Now, we’ll visit with each of the winners, starting with Jennifer Swift of the New Haven Register and Connecticut magazine.
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While most of us were enjoying a holiday on July 4, Jenn broke the story about an internal affairs report on “unconstitutional” conduct by East Haven police. The investigation was prompted by reporting and photography in January by the Register’s Mara Lavitt and Rich Scinto.
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One DFMie judge commented: “The entry is an example of a newsroom that knows one of its key roles is to be a strong watchdog for its community.”
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Here are links to some of the stories:
www.nhregister.com
www.nhregister.com
This story by Jenn’s colleague Evan Lips continued the coverage:
www.nhregister.com -
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Whoops! Jim Steinberg's Tout posted early. I'll get to him shortly, but continue with Jenn Swift right now. Jenn, please tell us about the East Haven story, how you got the report and pursued the story. And post your Tout about your winning work.
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Thank you! I mentioned this in a previous email, but my editors at the Register helped me a ton with this story-- and I really only found out about it because of another reporter.The entire story kind of happened on chance on an afternoon
in January. Our cops reporter, Rich, was on his way back from an assignment
when he saw a minor car accident. The accident was basically right outside of
our office in New Haven. Rich saw that the car accident was between an East
Haven police cruiser and another car—and started tweeting at me to show me some
photos.I'll post his tweet
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Our photo editor Vern sent a photographer, Mara, outside to
shoot a few photos. It wasn’t a bad accident, but it was a little weird that
East Haven police officers were out here in New Haven.I tried getting some information the day of the accident,
but the police chief had no idea his officers were in New Haven. My phone call
to him was the first he heard about the entire thing. All of this prompted an
internal investigation.I filed an FOI for the report once I heard the IA was
finalized—and the town finally gave it to me on July 4. -
It turns out the accident itself wasn’t really too big of an
issue—the report alleges that officer’s acted unconstitutionally in stopping
and questioning a woman barely involved in a purse snatching in East Haven.Right
now we’re waiting for disciplinary hearings to take place. Of the officer’s
involved, one retired in the middle of the investigation and is now running for
mayor. Another one transferred to a new department, one of them is the union
president and is now out injured. So the story is still ongoing. Because of
past issues in the department, East Haven is under the watch of the DOJ and
must abide by a consent decree, so this is all being monitored closely. -
In the newsroom we wonder what might have happened if the
accident hadn’t happened right outside our building & what if Rich wasn’t
on his way back. The IA shows officers weren’t forthcoming with the chief about
being in an accident initially—so if we didn’t have photos, this could have
played out differently.We're still waiting for the town to give us the copies of all the video and interviews they did as part of their investigation. We filed that back in July.
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Those graphics were perhaps the most challenging aspect of this package.
I had a choice of using someone on the water regulatory board, in Northern California, or someone in Southern California with a PhD in chemical engineering from MIT.
I chose the guy close to home.
He was a journalist in his youth and we thought he would understand what we needed.
But converting his very detailed 3-D graphics into 2-D, ans stripping off some of the details proved to be a nightmare. Particularly with the legends, which didn't match the graphics or didn't make sense -- time after time.
We were making corrections minutes before the final deadline. -
Richard and Dick, tell us about the Richards story and how you pursued it and post your Tout about your winning work.
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When I wrote my story, it appeared highly likely that Richards’ had misused the housing loan he had received. So using a public records request, I got a copy of the resume Richards submitted when he applied for the job of general manager and fact checked it. My biggest quandary was that his wife spelled her name two ways: Tiffany and Tiffani.
This really is the story that keeps on giving. The latest installment will be in the paper tomorrow: Richards is claiming the sanitary district that he is alleged to have ripped off is obliged to pay for his defense in a related civil suit. -
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As soon as I realixzed that we had a story regarding Ross Valley Sanitary District executive director Brett Ricahrds' $350,000 "housing:loan, I went to my source in the real estate community. He was able to determined during an actual meeting of the sewage agency;'s board that Richards had no interest in real property in any of California's 58 counties. , I then went to my editorial page editor who alerted Rich Halstred to the story. We working together and I was able to access confidential sources at the district to find out important details. I leaded from an IJ reader that Richards had previously filed twice for personal bankruptcy, something that the sewage district's due dilagance didn't reveal. -
Dick, you broke the story in your column, which you write as a regular freelance contributor. Richard, you then advanced the story. Tell us about any collaboration between the two of you in covering this story. Or did you approach it competitively, even though you were both writing for the Marin IJ?
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There was no competition between Rick and myself. He generously mentioned in each of his news stories that my column broke the story.
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I see my relationship with Mr. Spotwood as being complementary. On this story, he quite generously passed along information that Richards may have filed for bankruptcy in the past and been divorced, so I researched those leads through online court sites. It turned out Richards had filed for bankruptcy twice, and was having his wages garnished for alimony when he sought the housing loan.
All credit for the story really should go to Mr. Spotswood. But I don’t mind him sharing the cash prize. Thanks Richard. -
I'll keep moving but encourage the winners we've already introduced to continue their comments if they have more to say. For the second month in a row, the DFMie winner for the Pennsylvania/New Jersey/West Virginia coverage comes from the excellent coverage of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, which started in June and continued into July. In declaring the overall coverage by Pennsylvania newsrooms the June winner, we said that individual stories would be eligible to win in July.
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Brandie Kessler and Jason Plotkin win for the story of Barbara Myers, a transgender re-enactor who always wanted to dress up in girls’ clothes when he was a little boy and now enjoys Civil War-era dresses as a woman.
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A judge said, “An excellent feature story with a sentimental video complete with background music!”
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Brandie and Jason, please tell us about your story and post your Tout about your winning work.
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This actually started as a joke. I met a woman who sold Civil War era dresses and I asked her if any men came in to buy dresses for themselves. She told me that during the Civil War, there were men who dressed up like a woman to avoid being in the war. I thought that could be a cool story, so I began leaving my business card at all of the Civil War dress shops. That’s when one woman told me about a transgender re-enactor. I was hesitant because, in my experiences with transgenders in York, they are extremely guarded about being open about their experiences . But from the get go, I could tell Barbara was an open book. So at that point, I requested to do the story and get a reporter on board. So when you want to do a kick ass story, you bring in Brandie Kessler.
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Beyond the initial surprise of finding a transgender re-enactor, were there surprises you encountered in interviewing her and telling her story?
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By the time I was brought into things, Jason had already done the groundwork. As I mentioned in the Tout Jason posted, having the trust of your subject is crucial when the story is of a sensitive nature. Jason did a great job of making Barbara feel comfortable from the beginning. -
I think we were both surprised about the access that she gave us.
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Again, I'll move along, but invite the previous winners to continue their comments. For the Midwest DFMie winner, the Pioneer Press got unusual access to Target Field for the day of a Minnesota Twins game to produce a report on the people whose behind-the-scenes labors support a Major League Baseball game. The video is by C.J. Sinner, photos by John Autey and words by Brian Murphy: www.twincities.com
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A judge said: “What a great — and fresh — angle to take on an event so intertwined with the American experience. The story and photos take readers instantly to the ballpark to meet its many helping hands and behind-the-scenes players you meet in the video. Each part of the story package is complementary to the others, coving all the same highlights without being repetitive — or stealing the thunder of another piece of the coverage.”
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John and Brian are on assignments now, but C.J. will speak for the group. C.J., post your Tout about the story and tell us about it.
