Chronicle wins Newsroom of the Year in Texas journalism contest.
The Houston Chronicle won the Newsroom of the Year award in the state’s annual journalism contest, marking the second year in a row the newspaper has earned such a high honor.
The Texas Associated Press Managing Editors, which oversees the contest, made the announcement Friday. In 2019, TAPME named the Chronicle as Newspaper of the Year.
“This is a terrific day for this newsroom, which is so talented and works so hard,” said Chronicle Executive Editor Steve Riley. “The work that was honored included a broad spectrum of topquality journalism: investigative reporting, day-to-day watchdog journalism, storytelling, smart digital journalism and fine photojournalism. It makes our city, region and state stronger, and we thank our readers for making it possible.”
For 2020, TAPME established the Newsroom of the Year as a sweepstakes award to more fully honor a newspaper’s work. The Newspaper of the Year award is currently based on printed editions for only three dates during the year.
The Newsroom of the Year award takes into account all 35 award categories in the annual contest, such as photography, feature writing, investigative projects and digital journalism, to better reflect a newsroom’s entire body of work and to recognize that a newspaper’s work includes much more than a printed
product.
The Chronicle won 12 firstplace awards in the contest, most of which were announced Thursday, for categories including business reporting, editorials, feature writing, infographics, comment and criticism.
Chronicle investigations that uncovered mismanagement of the massive investment fund that supports Texas public schools and sexual abuse allegations among Southern Baptist leaders were honored for their impact on the community.
“Abuse of Faith” was a joint project between the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express News that revealed that 380 Southern Baptist church pastors and volunteers had faced credible allegations of sexual misconduct over 20 years. The multipart series, which won first place for Star Investigative Report of the Year, included work from Robert Downen, Lise Olsen, John Tedesco, Sarah Smith, Marie D. De Jesús, Jon Shapley, Jasmine Goldband, Matt Dempsey, Jordan Rubio and Ken Ellis.
“This series put a white-hot light on pastor abuse across the Southern Baptist church nationwide. It led to local secondary reporting on the issue across Texas and the nation. It made people realize how pervasive a problem we have as a country and forced the church to face the issue and the state of Texas to change laws,” one of the TAPME judges wrote.
“Abuse of Faith” also won a
Charles E. Green award on Friday for investigative reporting from the Headliners Foundation of Texas. The Charles E. Green Awards recognize “Best in Show” from among the TAPME award winners for all four newspaper divisions in Texas.
The Chronicle’s “Broken Trust” series won first place in community service for revealing mismanagement of the Texas Permanent School Fund. The series, written by Susan Carroll, David Hunn, Matt Dempsey and Jeremy Blackman, won second place for Star Investigative Report of the Year.
The Chronicle won Star Online Package of the Year for Dexter the Dog, an interactive children's story about a therapy dog that helps children recover at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital. Journalists Maggie Gordon, Jon Shapley, Ken Ellis, Susan Barber, Clarissa Rubio, Jordan Rubio, Robert Wuensche produced the work.
Chronicle deputy opinion editor Michael Lindenberger was named Star Opinion Writer of the Year.