Center wins four awards, including top website, from Milwaukee Press Club

Click to see the interactive graphic produced by the Center's Kate Golden. This won a first place award for best innovative feature.

WisconsinWatch.org was named the best local news or feature website at the Milwaukee Press Club’s annual awards celebration on Friday night.

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, which produces the website, was honored with three gold (first place) awards and a silver in the club’s Awards for Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism, the state’s premiere all-media journalism competition.

The Center now has received nine awards — six of them for first place — in the contest over the past two years.

“These awards recognize the incredible efforts of the Center’s staff and UW-Madison journalism students to dig deeply into important issues facing Wisconsin residents,” said Andy Hall, the Center’s founder and executive director.

He noted that the awards were related to coverage of such diverse issues as pollution from coal-fired power plants, an analysis of 50,000 emails sent to Gov. Scott Walker, and Wisconsin’s emergency preparedness in the decade since the 9/11 terrorism attacks.

The award for producing the state’s top local news or feature website demonstrates the high overall quality of the Center’s work and the progress it has made since launching operations in January 2009, Hall said.

See more details about the award winners here.

GOLD: 
Best innovative feature
Kate Golden
Emissions data for seven coal-firedpower plants

SILVER:
Best coverage of a single news topic or event
Kate Golden
Lauren Hasler
Julie Strupp
Amy Karon
Cailly Morris
Andrew Averill
Wesley Brooks
Walker emails

GOLD:
Best background, analytical or interpretive story
Jason Smathers
Sarah Karon
Kate Golden
Andy Hall
Dee J. Hall
Security After 9/11: 10 Years Later

GOLD:
Best local news or feature website
Kate Golden
Andy Hall
WisconsinWatch.org/Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism