NM Political Report won nine awards at the regional Society of Professional Journalists Region 9 “Top of the Rockies” contest, including four first place awards.
The annual awards include journalists from Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. NM Political Report competed in the small newsroom group, except for in the podcast category, which NM Political Report and New Mexico PBS competed in the medium newsroom group for the ongoing Growing Forward podcast.
Stories written by Kendra Chamberlain won two first place awards, in the Ag and Environment category for ‘Dereliction of duty’: 1.6 million gallons of produced water spilled so far in 2020 and in the Ag and Environment: News category for A river runs dry: Climate change offers opportunity to rethink water management on the Rio Grande.
Susan Dunlap’s story Progressive Democratic challengers want new voices in the state legislature earned first place in the Politics News category.
A story written by Andy Lyman called How Arizona’s cannabis legalization proposition might impact NM won first place in the Politics: Feature category.
Other awards included second place for Lyman in Enterprise Reporting for the story The confusing path to getting out of prison early, second place for Matthew Reichbach in Politics: News for NM had record absentee votes, total turnout, but elections ran smoothly, third place for Dunlap in the News Reporting: Single Story category for State Senate shifts left with progressive wins and third place for Lyman in the Public Service category for A balance between liberty and safety during a pandemic.
Additionally, the Growing Forward podcast won second place in the Podcast category.
