Award wins highlight importance of investing in local newsrooms
Our newsroom just took home 24 Virginia Press Association awards for its dogged work in 2020. The honors reinforce that what we do is worth investing in.
They also show the true cost of staffing cuts. Of 16 guild members named in our wins, five are no longer here — their jobs lost to layoffs or attrition.
In its write-up of our awards, our leaders quoted the high praise earned for our sweeping coverage of the pandemic. Left unsaid was four of the people who shared in that honor are gone. Three exited in the layoffs pushed through just a week earlier. One departed for a new job last year and was never replaced.
We netted an impressive four honors for design work including recognition of our front pages. Each winner was crafted by local designers who know our community. In late 2020, our copy desk would be slashed in half and our page design shipped to out-of-state hubs that mass produce papers.
Local news is a calling. One that requires many boots on the ground. We're so proud of what everyone in our newsroom accomplished last year in the face of unprecedented, impossible circumstances.
We hope Lee Enterprises will read the VPA comments. This is work worth supporting:
## Judge: Exceptional reporting. This is more than reporting on COVID-19. This is well-planned coverage of a once-in-a-lifetime event.
## Judge: Interesting, well-written stories accompanied by a beautiful design.
## Judge: It would be difficult enough to capture the unique perspective of this photo, but to be able to get it and also such an emotional look on the subject's face is incredible photography.
## Judge: This is stellar investigative journalism that dissects complex government disfunction, finds the heart of the story -- how children and families are impacted -- and presents it with intelligence and compassion. This is work of consequence, and the most important work that can be undertaken by journalists.
## Judge: This is the kind of thoughtful, witty column that readers want to read. When you have something to say, people listen. Well done.
