Reformer reporters recognized at 2024 Minnesota journalism awards
From left to right: J. Patrick Coolican, Christopher Ingraham, Max Nesterak, Michelle Griffith and Deena Winter. Photo by James Napoli/Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists.
Minnesota Reformer journalist Deena Winter and independent guest columnists Zak Yudhishthu and Joe Harrington were winners of 2024 Minnesota Society of Professional Journalist Page One awards, granted during an annual awards ceremony in St. Paul on Tuesday.
Winter won first place awards in two categories for an investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department’s off-duty work for security, and her story that found about half the people indicted in the Feeding Our Future fraud had other state contracts.
Yudhishthu and Harrington won first place for editorials on how local laws affect housing affordability in the Twin Cities.
The Reformer also took home a number of second and third place awards for stories about Minneapolis police earning six-figure salaries because of overtime pay, Mayo Clinic threatening to pull billions in investments over proposed legislation, restrictive labor practices of property management company FirstService, the influence of lobbying at the Minnesota Capitol and for beat reporting.
Reformer reporter Madison McVan was also a runner-up for young journalist of the year.
The Star Tribune’s Andy Mannix won journalist of the year in part for his in-depth story titled “What happened to Heather Mayer?” — which also won story of the year.
Katelyn Vue of the Sahan Journal and Elijah Lutgens of the NRHEG Star Eagle both won young journalist of the year.
Becky Dernbach of the Sahan Journal won best beat reporting for her education coverage.
Associated Press reporter Robin McDowell — who won a Pulitzer Prize for being part of a 2016 team that wrote stories leading to the freeing of 2,000 enslaved migrants in the Southeast Asia fishing industry — was a guest speaker at the awards ceremony,
McDowell in 2020 also investigated the case against Myon Burrell, who was sentenced to life in prison as a teenager. Her investigation found new evidence and a myriad of inconsistencies in the case, and the investigation led to Burrell’s release from prison.
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