Meet the winners of the 2022 LION Local Journalism Awards
The LION Awards celebrate sustainable businesses and journalistic excellence in independent online news.
The 2022 LION Local Journalism Awards brought our members together for the first in-person celebration in three years, with more than 45 winners and finalists honored at a dinner ceremony during the Independent News Sustainability Summit in Austin.
The event also featured a late-breaking announcement that the Knight Foundation will award $2,000 prizes to all the winners. Combined with the generous support of the Carol Oppenheim and Jerome Lamet Charitable Fund and our event sponsors, we will be giving away $68,000 in total prize money – a record for the LION Awards.
Congratulations to all the winners at the 2022 LION Local Journalism Awards:
- Enlace Latino NC 🥇🥇🥇
- Montana Free Press 🥇🥇🥇
- Santa Cruz Local 🥇🥇🥇
- Block Club Chicago 🥇🥇
- Watershed Voice 🥇🥇
- Asheville Watchdog 🥇
- Borderless Magazine 🥇
- Chalkbeat 🥇
- Columbia Missourian 🥇
- Documented 🥇
- Fort Worth Report 🥇
- KHOL / Jackson Hole Community Radio 🥇
- Mississippi Free Press 🥇
- Sahan Journal 🥇
- Shasta Scout 🥇
- Sioux Falls Simplified 🥇
- Southerly 🥇
- The Food Section 🥇
- The Kansas City Defender 🥇
- Wausau Pilot & Review 🥇
Learn more about the winners below and meet all of the finalists for the 2022 LION Local Journalism Awards.
LION Business of the Year (cash prize)
Co-Winner, Small Revenue Tier: Enlace Latino NC
Enlace Latino NC is North Carolina’s first nonprofit, Spanish-language digital news organization, empowering the diverse immigrant community to become more involved in political and social changes affecting them. Its commitment made it possible to grow exponentially in the last year despite being a small team with limited resources.
Co-Winner, Small Revenue Tier: Santa Cruz Local
What sets Santa Cruz Local apart is its focus on building systems – to achieve sustainability, and to analyze feedback from hundreds of residents to understand their priorities and inform deeply-reported projects on local elections and on homelessness.
Winner, Medium / Large Revenue Tier: Montana Free Press
Montana Free Press spent the past five years building its reporting and business teams, refining editorial products, and establishing trust with its audience. They focus on sustainable financial practices and support their talented staff through benefits such as an unlimited paid time off, sabbaticals and paid parental leave.
Finalists: Sahan Journal and Shawnee Mission Post & Blue Valley Post
New Business of the Year (cash prize)
Winner, Micro Revenue Tier: The Food Section
The Food Section is recognized for their strong financial position, ongoing reader engagement and attention to “issues of labor, race and health within the constraints of food journalism in the American South.”
Winner, Small Revenue Tier: Shasta Scout
Shasta Scout’s reporting is centered around experiences and perspectives of under-represented community members. Strong revenue growth resulted, moving from initial seed funding of $3,500 to first-year income of nearly $100,000.
Winner, Large Revenue Tier: Fort Worth Report
Launched in April 2021 with a staff of six and a newsletter list of under 600, Fort Worth Report’s community has propelled its rapid growth into an organization with a staff of 20 and a newsletter list of 13,000.
Finalists: Bucks County Beacon, The Red Hook Daily Catch, Cardinal News, Gig Harbor Now, The Palm Springs Post
General Excellence: Financial Health (cash prize)
Winner, Large Revenue Tier: Sahan Journal
Sahan Journal, with a diverse revenue mix, grew its annual budget by $1 million between 2021 and 2022, and is establishing a 3-month cash reserve.
Finalist: Fort Worth Report
Revenue Campaign of the Year
Winner, Medium / Large Revenue Tier: Block Club Chicago
Block Club Chicago teamed with a local artist on a campaign offering new subscribers an art-print of their choice featuring hyperlocal neighborhood places. Block Club Chicago surpassed its goal of 400 new subscribers and signed 1,800 new subscribers in just two months.
Finalist: Mississippi Free Press
General Excellence: Operational Resilience (cash prize)
Winner, Small Revenue Tier: Santa Cruz Local
Santa Cruz Local’s newsroom boosted diversity and inclusion by retooling its recruitment, hiring and onboarding, and promoting staff mental health. Their “flexible time off” policy encourages staff to take as much time away from work as needed, plus five weeks of mandated paid time off.
Winner, Medium/Large Revenue Tier: Montana Free Press
Montana Free Press invested time and resources in its staff by focusing on job satisfaction and work-life balance, with policies like unlimited paid time off, paid parental leave, sabbaticals, and mandatory extended holidays.
Finalists: El Tímpano, IndigiNews, Fort Worth Report
Collaboration of the Year
Winner, Small Revenue Tier: Enlace Latino NC and Southerly Magazine
Enlace Latino NC’s collaboration with Southerly Magazine, covers the intersection of economic mobility and environmental issues in Latinx and immigrant communities, and the stories are published in both English and Spanish.
Winner, Medium / Large Revenue Tier: Columbia Missourian
The “2,500 Below” collaboration between student journalists at the Columbia Missourian and other campus-affiliated publications focused on rural family farming communities being hollowed out by consolidation in the industry. Ten journalists spent four months visiting and reporting on the impact such changes have had over decades.
Finalists: Dallas Free Press, Fort Worth Report, Wisconsin Watch
Accountability Award
Winner, Micro Revenue Tier: Asheville Watchdog
Asheville Watchdog is recognized for their seven-part series on a local attorney who preyed on vulnerable homeowners and resulted in the subject’s arrest on 41 felony charges.
Winner, Small Revenue Tier: Wausau Pilot & Review
Wausau Pilot & Review reported on how local leaders were aware that the city’s drinking water contained toxic chemicals at levels higher than recommended, and kept the threat of harm from the public.
Winner, Large Revenue Tier: Documented
Documented investigated a fire in a high-rise Bronx building, which had become a hub for Gambian immigrants, that left 17 people dead, including 8 children. Documented’s reporters found that the Mayor’s office had distributed just $265,500 of the $4.4 million fund it raised for the 150 affected families.
Finalists: The Red Hook Daily Catch, Streetsblog NYC, The Maine Monitor, Berkeleyside, Block Club Chicago
Community Engagement Award
Winner, Micro Revenue Tier: The Kansas City Defender
The Kansas City Defender is centered around engaging Black youth both in digital spaces, and real-life community events. Their stories on racism in schools sparked national coverage and conversations.
Winner, Small Revenue Tier: Borderless Magazine
Borderless Magazine is recognized for hiring field canvassers to reach Spanish-speaking Chicagoans disconnected from the news, and for hiring an Afghan asylum seeker to produce stories for, by and with Afghans, in their native language.
Winner, Medium / Large Revenue Tier: Mississippi Free Press
Mississippi Free Press created a systemic-reporting prototype exemplified in their project “Black Women, Systemic Barriers and COVID-19” – work the judges praised as “thorough and organized.”
Finalists: Bucks County Beacon, SpokaneFāVS, Epicenter-NYC, Planet Detroit, Prison Journalism Project, Santa Cruz Local, Mississippi Free Press, Wisconsin Watch & Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Outstanding Coverage Award
Winner, Micro Revenue Tier: Watershed Voice
On Mothers’ Day 2022, a group of 30 demonstrators stationed themselves outside of Riverside Church in Three Rivers to protest the church’s leadership amid recent allegations of sexual and spiritual abuse. In addition to its coverage of the protest, Watershed Voice published the church’s response to the allegations, and sat down with survivor Linda Shank and her mother Joni to tell her story.
Winner, Small Revenue Tier: Santa Cruz Local
Santa Cruz Local’s reader-funded reporting series on the homelessness crisis in Santa Cruz County responded to local residents’ advocating for homelessness issues to be prioritized.
Winner, Medium / Large Revenue Tier: Block Club Chicago
Block Club Chicago reported on widespread fraud and profiteering by local COVID-19 testing companies.
Finalists: Oviedo Community News, The Red Hook Daily Catch, The Vallejo Sun, Shasta Scout, The Maine Monitor, The Palm Springs Post, Wausau Pilot & Review, Columbia Missourian and La Noticia.
Public Service Award
Winner, Micro Revenue Tier: Watershed Voice
Watershed Voice took an in-depth look into how a school-linked community adolescent health center is working to remove barriers between students and mental health services in Three Rivers, Michigan.
Winner, Small Revenue Tier: Enlace Latino NC
Enlace Latino NC launched the El Jornalero newsletter, providing news, resources, services, and relevant data in Spanish concerning the rights, well-being, and health of agricultural workers.
Winner, Medium / Large Revenue Tier: Chalkbeat
Chalkbeat’s texting service provides reminders about local school board meetings, boosting engagement and participation.
Finalists: Knox Pages, The Arkadelphian, Epicenter-NYC, The Maine Monitor, Mississippi Free Press, Sahan Journal, VTDigger
Product of the Year
Winner, Micro Revenue Tier: Sioux Falls Simplified
Sioux Falls Simplified, recognized for their Welcome Guide, brings audiences an annual, digital magazine-style product.
Winner, Small Revenue Tier: KHOL/Jackson Hole Community Radio
KHOL/Jackson Hole Community Radio, created a podcast series centered around the voices and experiences of people living in a mountain town.
Winner, Medium / Large Revenue Tier: Montana Free Press
Montana Free Press is recognized for its Election Guide ‘22.
Finalists: Oviedo Community News, Dallas Free Press, Prison Journalism Project, Votebeat
LION Community Member of the Year
The winner of this award is selected by LION staff in recognition of the time, expertise and generosity they contribute to LION’s community.
This year’s winner is Madison Minutes co-founder Sam Hoisington! Sam is a graduate of our 2021 GNI Startups Boot Camp and a regular source of inspiration and support to his Boot Camp cohort and the wider LION community.
Through Madison Minutes, Sam is also currently participating in one of LION’s 2022 GNI Startups Lab focused on Building and Managing a Team. He has also received a sustainability audit through The LION-GNI Sustainability Audits and Funding program.
Among other contributions, Sam has delivered a “lightning talk” about setting up a CRM at Madison Minutes, provided advice to the 2022 GNI Startups Boot Camp Canada cohort, shared success stories and lessons learned in the News Entrepreneur Community Slack group, and provided the LION team with valuable feedback on our programs and other member benefits. Thank you, Sam, for all you bring to the LION community!
About the LION Awards
The 2022 LION Local Journalism Awards winners and finalists were recognized at a dinner ceremony on Friday, October 28, 2022, which was Day 2 of the Independent News Sustainability Summit.
The event was hosted by Outlier Media executive director Candice Fortman and LION Publishers director of teaching & learning Lisa Heyamoto and featured a keynote address by The 19th co-founders Amanda Zamora and Emily Ramshaw.
Thank you to all the sponsors that made this event possible:
Platinum Sponsor
Gold Sponsor
Silver Sponsors
Spot-On Political Ads & Analytics
Bronze Sponsor
Prize Sponsor
Carol Oppenheim & Jerome Lamet Charitable Fund
Special thanks to this year’s volunteer judges: Alicia Ramirez, Andrew DeVigal, Andy Bechtel, Annemarie Dooling, Ariam Alula, Charles Stangor, Christine Schmidt, Damon Kiesow, Danya Henninger, David Grant, Doug Weber, Dylan Smith, Eden Fineday, Erica Perel, fahmida y rashid, Hanaa’ Tameez, Izz LaMagdeleine, Jan Schaffer, John Reid, Joshua L. Cornfield, Katherine R. Fritz, Ken Romano, Lillian Ruiz, Mark Potts, Meghan Murphy, Mesq’al Kebra, Michelle Faust Raghavan, Nancy Thomas, Ole Morten Orset, Patricia E. Gaston, Rocio Hernandez, Sarah Stonbely, Stacey Peters, Stefanie Murray, Tom Davidson, and Zack Baddorf.
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