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MEDIA CONTACT: Victor Lim | Chicago Public Media | vlim@chicagopublicmedia.org
Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ win national honors
NABJ cites staff members with 2024 Salute to Excellence Awards
Chicago (August 21, 2024) - Chicago Sun-Times staff members have won four top prizes in the National Association of Black Journalists’ Salute to Excellence Awards. Two of the four awards are for collaborations with Chicago Public Media colleagues at WBEZ.
The first-place honors in the national group’s yearly competition went to:
• Anthony Vazquez, videography, for “Football was everything for this Chicago peewee coach. Even after he became blind.”
• Mariah Rush and Alden Loury, newspaper business reporting, for “Exodus of major full-service grocers offering healthy variety paints a bleak picture of food access for some in Chicago.”
• Elvia Malagón and Esther Yoon-Ji Kang, newspaper feature-single story, for “Are guaranteed-income programs working?”
• Sarah Karp, Nader Issa, Lauren FitzPatrick and Alden Loury, newspaper news-series, for “Chicago’s mass school closings’ aftermath.”
“We’re inspired every day by our communities, and these national awards recognize the deep work we’ve done to serve and strengthen our region. The winning entries exemplify the nuanced, empathetic and well-reported stories we aim to tell for and about everyday people who have often been left out of other coverage,” said Jennifer Kho, executive editor of the Chicago Sun-Times. “I’m proud of the people-centered reporting represented here, which bring to light otherwise-untold stories of redemption and resilience, of the real impact of both the community challenges we face and of innovative solutions we’re trying, of progress and accountability.”
These are the latest of more than a dozen national honors this year for work published by the Sun-Times. The others were bestowed by the Society for Features Journalism, the National Headliner Awards and the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. They include top prizes from the features journalism group for Andy Grimm for “Voices from Chicago’s most violent neighborhood,” best inclusion and representation in features, and Creative Chicago, best special section.
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About the Chicago Sun-Times
Winner of eight Pulitzer Prizes, the Chicago Sun-Times features hard-hitting investigative reporting, in-depth political coverage, timely behind-the-scenes sports analysis and insightful entertainment and cultural coverage. In January 2022, the Sun-Times was acquired by Chicago Public Media, forming one of the largest nonprofit news organizations in the nation. In October 2022, the Sun-Times dropped its paywall on suntimes.com to ensure its journalism is accessible for all. Donate to the Sun-Times here.
