Bay Area News Groupwins international digital journalism award for Wine Country video project

‘You just gotta get out of here’ features police body-camera video from 2017 fires

The Bay Area News Group — publisher of The Mercury News and East Bay Times — has won a 2018 EPPY Award for the news organization’s exclusive look at police bodycamera video from last year’s Wine Country fires.

Judges for the contest run by Editor & Publisher named the immersive multimedia project “You just gotta get out of here” the best investigative/enter- prise feature on a website with 1 million or more unique monthly visitors.

The contest honors the best online journalism around the world, and other winners this year included CNN, ESPN, the Boston Globe, USA Today and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

Published May 20, “You just gotta get out of here” provided viewers a unique window into California’s deadliest night of wildfires that helped explain the life- and- death choices to be made before the state’s next big wildfire.

“This reporting shows why quality, local journalism is so vital today,” said Neil Chase, executive editor of The Mercury News and East Bay Times. “When we went back to dig into what really happened that night, we found compelling, personal stories that capture the heroism and fear of those tense moments and provide valuable lessons that will help our neighbors survive the next big fire.”

The project took shape after investigative reporter Matthias Gafni filed a public records request to obtain more than eight hours of captivating bodycam video from the Santa Rosa Police. He and colleague Julia Prodis Sulek teamed up to tell the stories of the officers behind the cameras and to track down many of the shaken residents whom police encountered on that terrifying night.

Video editor Randy Vasquez produced the videos, using additional footage from staff photographer LiPo Ching. The news organization’s graphics director, Pai, designed the website.

The nonprofit journalism organization CALmatters also won a 2018 EPPY for its “California Voter Guide: An election? We prefer to call it a job interview.” The project was named best innovation project on a website with fewer than 1 million unique monthly visitors.

“This reporting showswhy quality, local journalismis sovital today. Whenwewent back to dig into what really happened that night, we found compelling, personal stories that capture the heroismand fear of those tensemoments and provide valuable lessons that will help our neighbors survive the next big fire.” — Neil Chase, executive editor of The Mercury News and East Bay Times