NCPR.org wins national Edward R. Murrow award

We’re thrilled to announce that North Country Public Radio’s website, ncpr.org,  has won a National Edward R. Murrow Award for the best website in the country in the small market category. The award honors excellence in electronic journalism and commitment to inform and educate the public and enhance debate about important daily issues.

Congratulations and thanks to all of you who support and encourage our work. This is a very big deal!

Here are the features we submitted with our application:

North Country Public Radio home page:

http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/

The NCPR home page displays a rich mix of locally-produced news and feature content, NCPR special project content and daily features, alongside stories from NPR and other public media sources. On one day this week  (February 7, 2017), for example,  there were 11 news stories by NCPR reporters and stringers, two videos from an NCPR storytelling project, three blog posts by NCPR writers, three photo features on local work and history, and three other daily photo and arts features from local sources.

Investigative series:

Tunnel Vision: Did police cast a wide enough net for Garrett Phillips’ killer?

http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/series/top/23/tunnel-vision-did-police-cast-a-wide-enough-net-for-garrett-phillips-killer

The 2011 murder of 12-year-old Garrett Phillips came to trial in 2016. The long delayed prosecution was highly controversial, and racial elements brought national attention to the case. Leading up to the trial, NCPR reporters dug deeply into the evidence in a prosecution that, in the end, failed to convict and left the community divided. In this series, they use original police documents and recordings to evaluate the case and the possibility of an alternative suspect. An interactive map application takes visitors through the police timeline of the crime.

News podcast:

Day-by-Day: The Nick Hillary Trial

http://www.npr.org/podcasts/492848182/day-by-day-the-nick-hillary-trial

NCPR reporters were in the courtroom every day for the 2016 trial of Nick Hillary for the murder of 12-year-old Garrett Phillips. As an addition to their regular reporting for web and broadcast, in this podcast, NCPR reporters review the events of each court day and explain the significance of the sometimes arcane twists and turns of a high-stakes trial. The podcast was made available from iTunes, NPR, NCPR, and as a component of an NCPR Hillary trial Tumblr site.

Individual news story:

Harassed, afraid, a North Country immigrant fights back with love

http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/32951/20161117/harassed-afraid-a-north-country-immigrant-fights-back-with-love

This page is built out from a poignant and timely broadcast story of the harassment of an immigrant citizen in our region. Strong photography and intelligent use of interstitial audio combined with a good web rewrite helped to push this story out to a significant national audience. For the first time in our experience, NPR used the NCPR build of this story on its own home page, rather than building its own version.

Voter voices:

Don’t Dismiss Us: Young voters sound off

http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/32866/20161107/don-t-dismiss-us-young-voters-sound-off

Young voters are the demographic segment least likely to turn out on Election Day. Reporter Brit Hanson reached out on social media to hear what young voters were thinking about the election. 150 responded. She used those contacts to find young voters willing to talk on video and sound recorder about how and whether they were following the 2016 election. She found them engaged and concerned that their voices were not being heard.

Special project:

North Country at Work

http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/features/ncatwork.html/

This multi-platform project documents the history of work in the communities of the region through photos, stories and documents collected at in-person photo scanning and story collecting events. In 2016, 15 stories from the project went both to web and broadcast. Another five photo essays were delivered online only. Each weekday a new photo from the project was featured on the NCPR home page and Facebook page.

Tags: awards