The Allegheny Front staff won two awards from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania during its 58th annual Golden Quill awards dinner presented in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. The awards honor excellence in print, broadcast, photography, videography and digital journalism in western Pennsylvania and nearby counties in Ohio and West Virginia.
Traditional Feature
The Allegheny Front program host and reporter Kara Holsopple won a Golden Quill for Excellence in Audio Journalism in the Traditional Feature category for her story about the Allegheny Cleanways’ DumpBuster program. This sound-rich feature story, “How a determined crew of DumpBusters clears a ton of trash from a Pittsburgh hillside” focused on a team of volunteers cleaning up trash at one of Pittsburgh’s many illegal dumpsites. The judges chose this entry for its “nice writing, good mix of voices, natural sound and storytelling.”
How a determined crew of DumpBusters clears a ton of trash from a Pittsburgh hillside
Science/Environment
The Wild Pennsylvania series won a Golden Quill for Excellence in Audio Journalism in the category of Science/Environment for stories about black bears, preserving a pristine glacial lake, creating habitat for frogs and salamanders, studying white-nose syndrome in bats, and last summer’s mysterious death of songbirds.
The judges appreciated the Wild Pa. series: “It’s nice to hear reporters out in the field with experts on interesting topics. [It] shows the breadth of science and environment coverage.”
Finalists
Several stories were finalists in various categories for Excellence in Audio Journalism:
- Business/Technology/Consumer: U.S. Steel cancellation leaves Western Pa. with questions over steel’s future by Reid Frazier
- Documentary: Pollution’s mental toll by Julie Grant, Kara Holsopple and Environmental Health News reporter Kristina Marusic
- Enterprise/Investigative: Voltage Valley series about the Mahoning Valley in Ohio by Julie Grant
- Medical/Health: Feeling anxious about climate change? Experts say you’re not alone by Julie Grant
- Traditional Feature: Meet the can crushers by Andy Kubis
