Chronicle rated best for Ghost Ship report

The Chronicle has won the top national Society of Professional Journalists award for deadline reporting for its coverage of the Ghost Ship warehouse fire that killed 36 people in Oakland in December.

The annual Sigma Delta Chi Award honors the best deadline work of 2016 for newspapers and wire services with circulations over 100,000.

“The Chronicle’s blanket spot-news coverage of the Ghost Ship disaster was authoritative, indepth, well-written and visually exceptional,” the judges wrote of the paper’s deadline package. “The front-page print coverage gave readers a quick index to the essential information: the fire itself, the human stories of death and survival, and the city of Oakland’s failure to regulate.

“There were nearly 20 continuously updated stories on the paper’s website as well, in a remarkable illustration of teamwork on deadline.”

Coverage of the Dec. 2 blaze involved much of the newspaper’s staff in nearly round-the-clock reporting and editing for weeks.

“This award is a gratifying acknowledgment of a fact that our readers likely already knew: that The Chronicle was the most definitive source of news in the hours after that horribly tragic incident as well as the leading source of investigative reports about what might have been done to prevent it,” said Chronicle Editor in Chief Audrey Cooper.

“This is the sort of journalism that makes a difference in our communities — the early morning and late-night reporting that holds those in charge accountable while paying tribute to the lives we lost,” she said.

The Chronicle’s entry was one of 85 winners from among 1,300 submissions for categories of “exceptional professional journalism” for 2016.