WFIU, WTIU, and IPB News earn 16 SPJ awards

Posted April 24, 2023

IPB News was presented with the Slaymaker Service to Journalism Award at the Best in Indiana Journalism Contest on April 21. Pictured from left to right: Indiana SPJ president Lisa Renze-Rhodes, Julie Slaymaker, IPB News managing editor Scott Cameron, and IPB News digital editor Lauren Chapman. Photo by George Hale, WFIU/WTIU News.

WFIU, WTIU, and Indiana Public Broadcasting News (IPB News) earned 16 awards at the Indiana Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Best in Indiana Journalism Contest on April 21. The awards recognize the most outstanding work of the year in Indiana in print, broadcast, and online journalism.

IPB News was awarded the Slaymaker Service to Journalism Award for covering a wide variety of issues including climate change, elections, and housing. IPB News is a collaboration of the state’s nine public media newsrooms and a shared statewide team, which includes journalists from the WFIU/WTIU newsroom.

IPB News was also honored with four first-place awards for environmental reporting, radio continuing coverage, and best online multimedia, and two second-place awards for coverage of children’s issues.

The WFIU-WTIU News team won eight awards, including a first-place award for a radio feature story on the Goldfish Capital of the World; three second-place awards for environmental reporting, radio in-depth reporting, and radio public affairs; and four third-place awards for coverage of social justice issues, election and campaign coverage, radio in-depth reporting, and radio feature story.

WTIU received one first-place award for best feature story on Kopelov Cut Stone that appeared on WTIU’s TV series Journey Indiana. The judges called the story “a visually stunning homage to old world architecture” and said it was “overall a pleasure to watch.”

A complete list of SPJ awards presented to WFIU, WTIU, and IPB News follows:

SLAYMAKER SERVICE TO JOURNALISM AWARD

Indiana Public Broadcasting News

COVERAGE OF SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES (Any Indiana station)

3RD PLACE – PAT BEANE
WFIU/WTIU News

ELECTION AND CAMPAIGN COVERAGE (Any Indiana station)

3RD PLACE – WTIU NEWS

Young voters showed up for the 2020 election. Can they keep it up?

ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTING (Any Indiana station)

1STPLACE – REBECCA THIELE and ALAN MBATHI
Indiana Public Broadcasting News

With so much support, who wants to phase out rooftop solar incentives? Answer: Indiana utilities

2ND PLACE – WTIU NEWS