In case you missed it, two journalistic organizations gave NMPolitics.net several awards last week. That’s big news for our small operation! It’s affirmation that what we’re doing matters, and we’re doing it well.
Heath Haussamen
We won awards for news, investigative, political and feature reporting; commentary writing; and the strength of our website. These are all critical elements of the news organization and online community we’re building. We need your help to continue doing this work.
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In the multi-state 2015 Top of the Rockies contest — in which we were competing with journalists from Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — we won two awards:
- The article, “Flawed NM campaign reporting system needs reform, many say,” won first place for politics reporting in a category that included newspapers with a print circulation of 10,000-29,999 and several online-only media outlets. “A fine piece of reporting by Heath Haussamen of NMPolitics.net on the far-reaching problem of campaign financing abuses, with good reporting and analysis of the roots of the problem and possible solutions,” the judge’s comment stated.
- NMPolitics.net’s website won second place for general excellence, also in the category that included newspapers with a print circulation of 10,000-29,999 and online-only news organizations.
We won four awards in the state-level 2015 New Mexico Press Women competition:
- First place in the investigative reporting category for the article, “Docs may reveal potential Keller conflict on state fair lease.”
- First place among online publications in the news reporting category for the article, “Dianna Duran resigns, pleads guilty to two felonies,”and the accompanying timeline of events leading up to Duran’s resignation. NMPolitics.net was the first to report the news last year that Duran, who stole money from her campaign to feed a gambling addiction, had resigned from her job as secretary of state. The scoop was a big deal for us.
- Second place in the personal opinion columns category for my commentaries, “Let’s put Oñate in a museum with the Confederate flag,” and “The truth about gun deaths is complex.”
- Third place among online publications for feature reporting for the article, “Political labels don’t tell the whole story.”
NMPolitics.net operates on a shoestring budget. As editor and publisher, I’m the news organization’s only staffer. We were competing against newspapers and nonprofit news organizations with larger budgets and many staffers in these contests, and I’m really pleased with the results.
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NMPolitics.net is devoted to hard-hitting, fair exploration of politics and government that seeks to inform, engage and build community. Thanks for helping us make it work! And thanks for supporting our efforts to produce award-winning journalism!