The PublicSource staff has been honored for reporting that covers matters of critical importance in the lives of people who reside in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania.
We thank the judges and teams who manage these contests for their time and generous feedback.
PublicSource has received the following recognition for our journalism in 2023 and 2024. This list will be updated to remain current through calendar year 2024:
October 23, 2024
PublicSource reporter Quinn Glabicki has been honored in the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) Awards for Reporting on the Environment for “Hollowed Out.” Glabicki’s story, which took home 3rd place in the category of Outstanding Feature Story by a Small Newsroom, explored the lives of families after EQT Corp. increased fracking operations in their hamlet, including their efforts to engage with the company, regulators and advocates.
A judge noted, “the reporter’s strong writing paints a memorable picture of how fracking-related air pollution alters locals’ lives in West Virginia. The colorful multimedia package earns brownie points.”
The SEJ Awards for Reporting on the Environment honored the best environmental stories released from April 1, 2023 through April 30, 2024, and the best books on environmental topics published last year.
October 17, 2024
The Turkish Cultural Center of Pittsburgh, City of Bridges Foundation and Peace Island Institute Pittsburgh recognized PublicSource with an Inclusive Journalism Award for efforts to amplify immigrant and refugee voices through media.
The award was presented at the 21st annual Friendship Dinner and Award Ceremony. PublicSource was honored along with other community leaders and organizations including Dr. Maya Ragavan (Academic), Dr. Khlood Salman (Interfaith), Holly Hickling (NGO) and ARYSE (Education).
The evening included a keynote address by Crystal McCormick Ware, Duquesne University’s inaugural chief diversity officer and senior advisor to the president for diversity, equity and inclusion.
September 18, 2024
The Society for Professional Journalists Keystone Pro Chapter has recognized PublicSource with four 2024 Excellence in the Media Awards, celebrating outstanding journalism across Pennsylvania.
We’re proud to highlight our team’s accomplishments:
Creative director Natasha Vicens and the PublicSource staff won first place in the Web Use category for our feature “Points of Pride,” showcasing our commitment to innovative community storytelling online. “Points of Pride” featured Wilkinsburg and Beechview.
Reporter Quinn Glabicki secured first place in Environmental Reporting for “Inside Pennsylvania’s Monitoring of the Shell Petrochemical Complex,” highlighting the pattern of violations in the cracker plant’s first year of operations.
Reporter Lajja Mistry earned second place in Education Writing for “Uneven Scales,” addressing disparities in struggling school districts.
We also excelled in the Photo Story category, where photojournalists Glabicki and Stephanie Strasburg along with managing editor Rich Lord took third place for “In Wilkinsburg, Once We Break Those Curses, They Turn Into a Strength.”
August 9, 2024
PublicSource has been named as a finalist for general excellence in the micro newsroom category of the Online News Association’s annual competition honoring the best work in digital journalism. The Online Journalism Awards are the premier global prizes that have set the standards for excellence and innovation in digital journalism for 25 years.
PublicSource has been a general excellence finalist four times before and won the award in 2020 and 2021.
The winners of the general excellence award categories will be announced Sept. 20 in Atlanta at the Online Journalism Awards Ceremony and Luncheon.
July 19, 2024
The GroundTruth Project, which honors reporting that exposes truths best understood through human narratives, was awarded today to Quinn Glabicki for “Hollowed Out,” the first in his ongoing series “EQT’s Gas Play.”
A panel of judges found that “Hollowed Out” combines “powerful photography, strong reporting and writing and a creative use of graphics and medical records to document the impact of a large fracking operation on one community in West Virginia,” according to a press release from GroundTruth.
The stories explored the lives of families after EQT Corp. increased fracking operations in their hamlet, including their efforts to engage with the company, regulators and advocates.
The GroundTruth Project is the home of the Report for America program, which places reporters, including Glabicki, in local newsrooms to shed light on undercovered issues. The Pulitzer Center has also supported the series.
“Hollowed Out” was selected by a panel of judges composed by the GroundTruth editorial team and Report for America leadership, who evaluated stories on the depth of their reporting, proximity to their subjects and impact on the communities they cover.
“The GroundTruth award recognizes reporting that is close to the ground and that focuses on exposing truths that are more deeply understood through the human narratives,” said GroundTruth founder and Editor-in-Chief George Sennott in presenting the award during Report for America’s national gathering at the University of Minnesota. Glabicki’s work, he said, “captured that spirit of reporting that is embedded in the concept of ground truth.”
June 21, 2024
The Local Media Association has awarded PublicSource a 2023 Digital Innovation Award for Best Local Website, securing first place among small to medium media organizations. PublicSource has won this national award for three consecutive years.
A judge celebrated the fact that PublicSource is not only focused on growth metrics, “but on partnership and collaboration in storytelling and community impact, which is what local journalism is all about.
“I particularly loved reading that PublicSource holds a core value of ‘collaboration for the common good,’ and that they demonstrated significant partnerships in the last year. This is the model that wins at the end of the day.”
June 18, 2024
The Pennsylvania News Media Association has honored PublicSource with three Keystone Media Awards, recognizing our innovative approaches to news and storytelling that underscore our dedication to creative, community-based journalism.
Awards received in Division I:
Graphic/Photo Illustration, First Place: Deselected: My time on the jury pool in the Tree of Life shooting showed why juries are so homogeneous by Andrea Shockling
Podcast, First Place: From the Source, Season 4: Youth voices unleashed by Jourdan Hicks and Liz Reid
Excellence in Reporting on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Second Place: Beechview Points of Pride by the PublicSource Staff
These awards exemplify the innovative spirit that drives PublicSource. By exploring creative approaches to journalism — such as graphic essays, podcasts highlighting youth voices, and community engagement projects — we continue to push the boundaries of traditional news reporting. Our commitment to diverse and impactful storytelling allows us to connect more deeply with our audience and bring essential issues to the forefront.
June 14, 2024
The Pittsburgh Black Media Federation gave the PublicSource staff its Robert L. Vann Award of Excellence for visual presentation in digital or multimedia reporting for the team-wide “Wilkinsburg Points of Pride” package. Every member of the staff worked on the series, which used video, photo, text and map elements to share with readers the strengths and assets of one of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s most diverse communities.
Judges appreciated the rich portrayal of the community and the way the images made it impossible to look away.
The federation also gave PublicSource journalists Quinn Glabicki, Stephanie Strasburg and Rich Lord an excellence award for visual presentation in a photo essay for one component of that package: “In Wilkinsburg, ‘Once we break those curses, they turn into a strength.’”
Also receiving an excellence award, for reporting on public affairs, politics, government or education: K-12 education writer Lajja Mistry, for “Allderdice and Westinghouse, 3 miles away, are worlds apart in AP classes, teacher experience, student disadvantage.” Judges were impressed by the mix of data and individual experience.
Finalists for Vann awards were Eric Jankiewicz for reporting on the Housing Choice Voucher program in Pittsburgh, and Jankiewicz and Strasburg for coverage of an emergency shelter’s closure.
Among numerous special honors presented by the federation was the Community Champions Award, given to Future Kings Mentoring.
Vann, for whom the awards are named, was the nationally influential publisher of the Pittsburgh Courier, now named the New Pittsburgh Courier.
May 29, 2024
PublicSource earned nine Press Club of Western Pennsylvania Golden Quill awards for excellence, including best of show in its division, while also sealing three finalist spots in results announced Tuesday.
Lena Chen’s essay “Uncovering Pittsburgh’s long-hidden Asian American history made me feel at home — and I learned I wasn’t alone” won the Ray Sprigle Memorial Award as the best entry in the Division 2 outlet category and the excellence award for writing on history and culture.
In the enterprise and investigative journalism category, reporter Venuri Siriwardane and intern Tanya Babbar won for an investigation of Allegheny County’s chosen contractor to run its long-closed youth detention facility.
Quinn Glabicki’s dive into the state’s interactions with Shell at its Beaver County petrochemical plant won in the science and environment category.
Winning in the photo essay category was the anchor piece of PublicSource’s multi-story exploration of Wilkinsburg’s strengths, by Stephanie Strasburg, Glabicki and Rich Lord.
That effort to map and chronicle the borough’s assets, to which all PublicSource staff contributed, also won for best digital presentation.
A joint project between Pittsburgh magazine and PublicSource exploring changes in the region’s leadership ranks won in the collaboration category.
Elizabeth Szeto’s story on a Pittsburgh effort to address high utilizers of the 911 system won in the health journalism category.
For excellence in audio journalism, Jourdan Hicks and Liz Reid were winners for the fourth season of the From the Source podcast.
Honored as finalists were:
- Lajja Mistry, Stephanie Mirah and Natasha Vicens for multiplatform reporting in the Uneven Scales project on resources within the Pittsburgh Public Schools
- Emma Folts for a spot news story on Chatham University’s budget cuts and layoffs
- Charlie Wolfson for political reporting analyzing the results of the race for Allegheny County executive.
May 23, 2024
PublicSource’s Charlie Wolfson was awarded first place for breaking news reporting in the 4th annual Report for America Local News Awards. In Wolfson’s winning story, he analyzed the results of the November 2023 election and found a consequential trend of ticket splitting in the suburbs outside of Pittsburgh — a voter behavior that’s become more unusual in a polarized political climate. It won the category in a contest that saw more than 200 entries from nearly 120 journalists.
Wolfson is PublicSource’s reporter covering local government and politics and has been a Report for America Corps member since 2021.
April 8, 2024
PublicSource staff members, interns, freelance contributors and community members who worked with PublicSource to share their stories were nominated as finalists for 11 awards in the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania’s 60th Golden Quill contest.
The annual competition recognizes professional and student excellence in written, broadcast, photographic, video and digital journalism in Western Pennsylvania and neighboring counties in Eastern Ohio and Northern West Virginia. The complete list of finalists is available here. Winners will be awarded during a May 28 dinner at Rivers Casino.
The following PublicSource stories were named as finalists:
Excellence in Written Journalism — Division 2, Enterprise/Investigative: “Allegheny County’s Pick to Run Shuman Hit With Negligence Lawsuits” by Venuri Siriwardane and Tanya Babbar
Spot/Breaking News: “‘We Were All Blindsided’: Chatham University Faces Multimillion-Dollar Budget Hole, Lays Off Staff, Cuts Benefits” by Emma Folts
Public Affairs/Politics/Government: “Suburban Ticket Splitting Spelled Defeat for Dugan, Nearly Derailed Innamorato” by Charlie Wolfson
Medical/Health: “911 Becomes the Go-to Help Line for ‘High Utilizers.’ Who’s Reaching Out to Help Them? Pittsburgh Firefighters” by Elizabeth Szeto
Science/Environment: “Inside Pennsylvania’s Monitoring of the Shell Petrochemical Complex” by Quinn Glabicki
History/Culture: “Uncovering Pittsburgh’s Long-hidden Asian American History Made Me Feel at Home — and I learned I Wasn’t Alone” by Lena Chen
Excellence in Audio Journalism, News Feature: “From the Source Season 4: Featuring Youth Experience, Culture and Voices in the Pittsburgh Area” by Jourdan Hicks and Liz Reid
Excellence in Journalistic Craft Achievement, Photo Essay: “In Wilkinsburg, ‘Once We Break Those Curses, They Turn Into a Strength’” by Quinn Glabicki, Stephanie Strasburg and Rich Lord
Digital Presentation: “Points of Pride: PublicSource Maps and Chronicles the Strengths of Diverse Communities in Wilkinsburg and Beechview” by the PublicSource Staff
Multiplatform Project: “Uneven Scales” by Lajja Mistry, Stephanie Mirah and Natasha Vicens
Excellence in Collaboration: “Power Shift: Dozens of the Pittsburgh Area’s Top Institutions Are Going Through Leadership Changes. The Turnover Could Echo for Decades” by Pittsburgh Magazine Staff and PublicSource Staff
April 2, 2024
PublicSource was honored with two awards in the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association (PNA) Foundation advertising contest.
PublicSource received a Division I Second Place for Multiple Advertiser Ads for a nonprofit partnership email featuring several Pittsburgh nonprofits sharing their messages during the 2023 holiday giving season and a Division I Honorable Mention for Self-Promotion advertising for the “I care about…” Instagram campaign and video.
Contact Halle Stockton at halle@publicsource.org with any questions or comments.
