'Essential and engaging': Caller-Times wins statewide award for breaking news report
The Corpus Christi Caller-Times’ coverage of Winter Storm Uri was named this year’s winner of the Headliners Foundation’s Breaking News Report of the Year in Texas.
The Headliners Foundation Charles E. Green Award was announced after the South Texas newsroom recently earned eight awards in the annual Texas Association of Managing Editors contest. Those wins also included first place for Star Breaking News Report of the Year for coverage of Winter Storm Uri.
Caller-Times journalists in that annual contest were recognized for breaking news, community service, investigative, and sports reporting, along with photography, and video. The newsroom competed against 10 others in Class AAA.
This latest win is significant because the Green Awards contest placed the division-level winners of statewide awards in "a head-to-head competition" with top winners in six categories. The judges were journalism experts from across the nation, according to a news release from the Headliners Foundation.
The Caller-Times staff provided an array of updates before, during, and after Winter Storm Uri.
"One newspaper stood out in its efforts to not just report but to tell us the story: to take us inside homes and put us next to moms and dads and kids and even pets – to show us, in gripping, vivid detail, the effects of this event on the people of Texas," according to the contest judge's comments.
Editor Mary Ann Cavazos Beckett wrote in her contest letter that news staff was "united in providing coverage from multiple angles that helped our community through a disaster."
The contest judge agreed.
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"The journalists of the Caller-Times succeeded in that mission, with reporting that was both essential and engaging," noted contest judge Pauline Arrillaga, a professor of practice at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Arrillaga, who is also a former U.S. enterprise editor for The Associated Press, added that Caller-Times reporter Kirsten Crow led the "masterful storytelling" that "remind us of the public service mission of a community newspaper: a smart Q&A about the water situation and a live guide providing detailed information about where to find food (brisket, even), water, shelter, propane and more."
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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Caller-Times wins statewide award for breaking news report of the year
