Lost in the flood of layoff posts, a major honor given to Gannett's flagship. From yesterday's press release:Blake Morrison and Brad Heath of USA Today are the 2009 winners of the Grantham Prize for Excellence in Reporting on the Environment. Morrison and Heath will receive the $75,000 prize for The Smokestack Effect: Toxic Air and America's Schools, their data-intense investigative series on industrial pollution near schools. Grantham Prize jurors described the series as taking “science-based journalism to a new level.”
The reporting team worked with academic researchers to pool government data on industrial polluters near 127,800 schools in an effort to identify potential toxic hot spots. Their findings were incredible: The models indicated that the air outside thousands of schools could be at least twice as toxic as the air in nearby neighborhoods, and sometimes ten times higher.Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green rail, upper right.
This not only speaks well of Brad and Blake, but of the support they got from Hillkirk and the efforts made on the Web side, too. Well-deserved recognition for good work.
ReplyDeleteNothing against any of the people mentioned or the prize, but with that said, USAT is a disaster in almost every way imaginable. The teachers' pets continue to be treated like royalty and will undoubtedly will respond to this from their iPhones or Blackberrys while on their third break of the day. The paper is in decline. The web site is mediocre at best and mostly run by folks who couldn't hack it in print. I see nothing happening to turn any of that around.
ReplyDeleteCongrats, gents.
ReplyDeleteI went through the index page. It is amazing enterprise journalism. The cynic in me wonders... does corporate keep the prize money and trophy?
ReplyDeleteThis was an amazing piece of journalism, from idea to delivery.
ReplyDeleteUSA TODAY is not perfect, but this project comes close. Congratulations to all involved.