Missouri Press Association
Serving Missouri Newspapers Since 1867
Missouri Press Association for a second year partnered with the A-Mark Foundation to award a total of $15,000 to Missouri journalists and news organizations. The A-Mark Foundation is a nonpartisan nonprofit founded in 1997 and dedicated to supporting and encouraging journalism and investigative reporting.
Investigative journalists give their audience insight into government, businesses and even individuals that might not otherwise be accountable to the average citizen. In many cases, the subjects of these reports often wish the topics remain undisclosed to the public.
The winners of Missouri’s A-Mark Prize for Investigation Journalism showed excellence in their fact-finding, exhibiting the exceptional skill and effort required to develop information into news reports on topics that might otherwise have gone unknown to their wider audience.
A total of 20 A-Mark entries were received, showcasing reporting from every corner of Missouri and by newsrooms of every size, from single staff newspapers to multi-journalist teams. More information about the winning entries will be available via Missouri Press Association’s website, www.mopress.com.
Receiving the third-place prize was KMBC 9 News and the investigative journalism team of Matt Flener, Cara Doyle Wright, Rachel Coleman and Carly Johnson for their “Restrained” series. Judges said the multi-state investigation had excellence balance due to judicious use of the voices of law enforcement, civil attorneys and advocates. The story lays out the difficulties involved in the reporting, including a mind-boggling lack of basic transparency by some law enforcement entities.
The video report can be found here. Read more about the reporting here and find links to more coverage here.
The second-place A-Mark Prize winner is The Kansas City Star and the reporting duo of Judy L. Thomas and Mike Hendricks for their “KCFD Files” series about a lack of accountability for the city’s fire department and liability on the part of the union and criminal justice system. Costs for these failures are measured in lives lost and people injured, as well as millions of dollars in public payouts for damages.
Their reporting is described as a classic example of the value of staying on a story and reporting through stonewalling efforts.
The first story in the series can be found here. Read more about the reporting here and find links to more coverage here.
First place for the A-Mark Prize for Investigative Journalism was presented to the Missouri Independent and journalists Clara Bates and Anna Spoerre for their reporting on inequities in the foster care system.
The reporting managed to combine sharp focus on a specific subject with a sweeping indictment of statewide policy failures. With an “almost Dickensian level of details,” according to judges, such as the description of a former pastor’s house in Wright City, the stories are both heartbreaking and infuriating.
By their efforts, judges said it is no surprise the reporting by Bates and Spoerre contributed to statewide improvements in the form of legislative changes, as well as personally affecting positive action for a young mother and her child.
The first story in the series can be found here. Read more about the reporting here and find links to more coverage here.
The A-Mark Prize for Investigative Reporting was open to all news media organizations based in Missouri and their staff members, including newspapers, broadcast outlets and digital-only platforms. Freelance journalists based in Missouri whose reporting is published or aired by Missouri news media organizations were also eligible to enter.
Awards were presented Saturday, Sept. 26, during Missouri Press Association's 160th Annual Convention and Tradeshow in Columbia, Missouri. Tracey DeFrancesco, chief operating officer for the A-Mark Foundation, presented the awards.
For more information about the A-Mark Prize for Investigative Journalism, including information about past recipients, please visit https://amarkfoundation.org/a-mark-prizes/.
