The Reporter's award-winning journalists bring home five honors for work from 2021
FOND DU LAC - The Reporter has received five Wisconsin newspaper awards for its reporting on local business, political history, environmentally-conscious farming and a local teen who landed a patent for a new fishhook.
The Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation Better Newspaper Contest awards were presented Friday during the foundation's annual banquet in Madison. The awards honor newspapers from across the state, divided into classes by readership size, in a variety of categories, including reporting, photography, advertising, design and more. Stories up for consideration at this year's awards were published between September 2020 and August 2021.
Daphne Lemke received a first-place award and a third-place award for her work, and Sharon Roznik received two first-place awards and one third-place award.
Roznik, who has since retired, won a top award for a deep-dive on the history of the Republican Party amid former President Donald Trump's impeachment trial in February 2021. Western Fond du Lac County factors in to the history of the political party, as a small white school house in Ripon is widely considered the party's birthplace. Roznik won in the Localized National Story category.
"A wonderful perspective and commentary on our current political climate and how we can learn from the past," judges wrote. "The parallels drawn between the circumstances that brought about the formation of the party and climate it finds itself in today were very well composed."
Roznik also won first place in Environmental Reporting with a story focused on farming tactics undertaken in the opposite end of Fond du Lac County, along the east side of Lake Winnebago. The story discussed no-till farming methods, planting of cover crops and the use of low-disturbance manure injection, and she spoke with those behind the efforts.
Meanwhile, Roznik's third-place win was for a feature story on a Fond du Lac STEM senior who landed a patent for a fish hook design that doesn’t let worms get away.
Lemke's first-place award was is for business coverage, based on a selection of her reporting on Fond du Lac County's economy. The pieces highlighted were:
"This was a very well done, expansive look at labor and wellness challenges for one community," judges wrote. "It did a great, original job explaining the impact of the pandemic but also challenges that existed before and were exacerbated by it. The author’s efforts in explaining why keeping young workers in the area is important was clear and effective. The articles were well sourced, tightly written and flowed nicely together despite being separate stories."
Lemke also took third place in the daily newspaper division's "Rookie Reporter of the Year" competition, for which reporters early in their careers are judged in only daily and nondaily categories, rather than by newspaper size.
Of her work, judges wrote: "While this is a rookie reporter nominee, the depth of stories she is handling is not rookie reporter stories. She has written stories which take a lot of research, finding about facts, and putting all that information into stories. The stories are not easy to write for general interest. A good reporter now and appears to be one who will continue her work."
In addition to her wins in Fond du Lac County, Lemke also won two awards for stories she wrote while working for one of The Reporter's sister newspapers, the Door County Advocate.
Her story "Amidst Door County's rich tourism industry, working families struggle to find suitable, affordable housing" received first place in Enterprise/Interpretive Reporting. Lemke also shared a second-place award in Business Coverage with fellow reporters Chris Clough and Isabel Koyama. Stories recognized as part of this award were:
"Wisconsin Dells, Door County tourism is surging, but businesses are struggling to find employees" by Lemke and Koyama;
"The Dorr Hotel in Sister Bay honors Door County’s Scandinavian heritage, aims for younger guests" by Lemke and Clough; and
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin wins six statewide awards
In addition to the local awards collected by The Reporter, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin won six statewide awards, including three firsts. Here's more about those awards:
• Network staff, as a group, claimed first place in the Community Engagement Award Daily Division category for its school COVID-19 crowdsourcing. The judge wrote of the project: “This is a clear example of the good newspapers are capable of fighting for on behalf of their communities. The easy-to-navigate database, accompanied by an explanatory, detailed story on the situation, certainly gave parents and community members tools they were missing to make the best decisions for their health and safety. I have no doubt this project was successful in building community trust.”
• Reporters Natalie Brophy and Nusaiba Mizan won first place in the Ongoing/Extended Coverage category for their article series “Businesses say finding employees is their top headache. This series explores the trends behind Wisconsin’s workforce woes.” The judge wrote: “Such a timely series. Many have hear about the worker shortage, but this gives an easy-to-understand look into the intricacies of what is actually happening and what some of the proposed solutions might entail. Wonderful work.”
• Reporter Madeline Heim won first place in the Coronavirus Coverage category for her articles “As Wisconsin hospitals fill up with COVID patients, front-line workers sound the alarm” and “Contact tracers were supposed to be key players in fighting COVID-19. But as Wisconsin’s cases surge, they’re overwhelmed.” The judge wrote: “Madeline Heim takes a deep dive into pandemic coverage, providing readers of USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin with in-depth coverage and personal stories of the public health emergency. The quality of her work, and obvious time and energy invested into her articles, shows. Congrats.”
• Reporter AnnMarie Hilton took third place in the Feature Story (Non-profile) category for her story “Everything you need to know about Wisconsin’s water towers: The good, the ‘evil,’ and the people who swim in your drinking water.” The judge wrote: “Through superb story-telling and fun anecdotes, this piece made waters towers — water towers! — one of the most interesting things in your town.”
• Reporters Jeff Bollier, Brophy and Mizan won third place in the Enterprise/Interpretive Reporting category for their series “Unaffordable: No place to call home.” The judge wrote of the series: “Ambitious project that used situations of a cast of characters as the vehicle to tell a story about the cost of housing. Those voices and their individual set of circumstances made the entire series of stories approachable and relatable. Nice concept, excellent execution.”
• Reporter Frank Vaisvilas, a Report For America corps member who covers Indigenous affairs for the network, was awarded honorable mention in the Investigative Reporting category for his story “American Indians incarcerated at among highest rates in Wisconsin, as many as half the inmates in some jails.” The judge wrote: “Excellent piece which illustrates the difficulties experienced by an often under-represented group of people. Author demonstrates strong research and storytelling skills. Solid piece.”
The Reporter thanks its readers for their continued support, and aims to continue to serve Fond du Lac County and the surrounding communities with top-notch local journalism. To submit a tip for consideration or join the conversation, email news@fdlreporter.com.
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin staff contributed to this report.
Reach Taima Kern at tkern@gannett.com or 920-907-7819.
This article originally appeared on Fond du Lac Reporter: The Reporter wins awards in Wisconsin Newspaper Association contest
