2024 Golden Press Card: Digital Only - East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists

Here are the 2024 Golden Press Card winners in the Digital Only category. The entries were judged by the Oklahoma SPJ Pro Chapter.

FEATURE REPORTING (Digital Only)

First Place
Contestant Name: Knox TN Today
Entry Title: Amanda Gouldie: Grant’s widow-A hero like him!
Entry Credit: Tom King
Links: See entry
Judge Comments: Well written and you made me really feel for the spouse of this hero. I hope this wonderful profile led others to get checked for colon cancer. It would surprise me if it didn’t

HURRICANE HELENE IN-DEPTH COVERAGE (Digital Only)

First Place
Contestant Name: Compass
Entry Title: After the Flood
Entry Credit: Kim Trevathan
Links: See entry, See entry
Judge Comments: Excellent writing and very good use of details.

SPORTS REPORTING (Digital Only)

First Place
Contestant Name: Knox TN Today
Entry Title: You don’t have to tell your story. Time will.’
Entry Credit: Maria Cornelius
Links: See entry

Category Comments: The feature on Candace Parker gave us a very insightful look at one of the best basketbal players for the University of Tennessee and a longtime professional standout for the WNBA. Her accolades are infinite. Her athletic and personal achievements are standouts in not only collegiate basketball but also in the pro ranks and in her personal life. An excellent portrait of an individual role model by Maria Cornelius that gives us a window into the person as well as the athlete. Through injuries and surgeries, she always set goals and then achieved them. I feel like I have met her without actually meeting her through Maria’s writing. Well done!

Second Place
Contestant Name: Knox TN Today
Entry Title: To heck with Ohio State, 2024 was a good year
Entry Credit: Marvin West
Links: See entry

GENERAL REPORTING (Digital Only)

First Place
Contestant Name: Compass
Entry Title: From the Ashes
Entry Credit: Angela Dennis
Links: See entry

Category Comments: Angela Dennis paints a picture of an institution wounded by a natural disaster. Often, the news covers the buildup and the impact. The aftermath is usually lost as other events elbow any reporting on the effects and how the people deal with it. Only exceptions to this, to me, are the Oklahoma City bombing and the 9/11 attack. Here, we see how accreditation, a very vital requirement for the existence of a college’s existence, is in jeopardy as a result of this fire. This institution lost accreditation in 1997, so the climb back was already uphill before the fire struck. Excellent reporting that gives a fuller picture of what follows when disaster hits.

GOVERNMENT & POLITICS REPORTING (Digital Only)

First Place
Contestant Name: Compass
Entry Title: 2024 Elections
Entry Credit: Jesse Mayshark, Scott Barker, Owen McCarthy
Links: See entry, See entry, See entry, See entry

Category Comments: Excellent local, detailed, informative reporting by Scott Barker, Jesse Fox Mayshark and Owen McCarthy for Compass. Knox County and Knoxville election results not only report the data, but also provide needed analysis and depth to the results. This is local journalism that dives into the why and how. County commission results showed trends beyond the numbers. Another well sourced story gave the reasons for the Democrats gains from a local general election. Democracy thrives when news consumers are informed. Students can learn local reporting from Compass journalism!

HURRICANE HELENE BREAKING COVERAGE (Digital Only)

First Place
Contestant Name: Hellbender Press
Entry Title: Helene hits the mountains
Entry Credit: JJ Stambaugh, Thomas Fraser, Newsroom Hellbender Press Staff
Links: See entry

Category Comments: Going from a news market that reports on an annual wave of tornado and storm weather, I am absolutely impressed with the quick reactive yet comprehensive reporting of J.J. Stambaugh and Thomas Fraser of Hellbender Press. This environmental news and information platform was pressed into breaking news coverage of Hurricane Helene flooding in the Southern Appalachian Mountain region. A favorable comparison can be made with ABC’s unexpected yet comprehensive coverage of the 1972 Munich Olympics terrorist attack. In both instances, news media had to unexpectedly navigate the crisis and deliver breaking news coverage. J.J. Stambaugh and Thomas Fraser delivered news above and beyond what happened during. A textbook example of breaking weather news coverage that a few outlets in Oklahoma could learn from in our next tornado coverage.

DEADLINE/BREAKING NEWS REPORTING (Digital Only)

First Place
Contestant Name: Hellbender Press
Entry Title: Digital only: Helene breaking news coverage
Entry Credit: Thomas Fraser, Paige Penland, JJ Stambaugh
Links: See entry

Category Comments: Hellbender Press, apparently a normal environmental news and information website, was transformed into a severe weather and flooding news reporting operation with quick efficiency that has to be envied by Oklahoma news outlets that face quickly developing weather news on a yearly basis every spring. The environmental writers of Hellbender Press posted stories, photos, graphics and maps as the flooding quickly developed. Hellbender Press showed how to cover fast breaking weather storms and apparently without the expertise of news outlets in tornado alley, including Oklahoma. And excellent achievement!

SERIES/PACKAGE/PROJECT WRITING (Digital Only)

First Place
Contestant Name: Hellbender Press
Entry Title: DIGITAL Hurricane Helene full coverage
Entry Credit: Thomas Fraser, JJ Stambaugh, Hellbender Press Team Coverage
Links: See entry

Category Comments: How to cover the followup to a severe weather event? Hellbender Press, which apparently doesn’t do this on a regular basis, showed how it was done following the Appalachian flooding of 2015. They interviewed a climate scientist and flooding victims. I was on the news desk of The Oklahoman in 1995 after the Murrah federal building attack. The Oklahoman perhaps created the textbook on how to interview victims in a mass casualty event. Here, the Hellbender Press – whether they knew it or not – followed the Oklahoman’s victim coverage and delivered exemplary stories of people affected by impact and by the fatalities of families and friends. I know. I was there. Hellbender Press reported on the how and why of a mass flooding disaster … outstanding. Reporting on the victims of the Appalachian flooding was exemplary. Well done, journalists!