Staff Report
NC Health News has been lauded with an organization-record 20 awards in the annual North Carolina Press Association editorial contest, including five first place wins.
The state press association honored work published from March 2023 to March 2024. NC Health News was judged among its peers in the online-only category.
Last year, NC Health News won 17 awards, the most of any online outlet. The publication took home 17 awards in 2022 as well. Last year’s awards included two second-place nods for general excellence for overall publication and website. Specialty awards such as general excellence for the current contest will be announced Sept. 19 at the NCPA annual convention in Raleigh.
Also in this year’s contest, NC Health News won nine second-place and six third-place awards. The wins included a sweep of the graphic/illustration category.
“I’m so proud to lead a team of such talented and dedicated journalists who maintain their focus on keeping the public informed,” editor Rose Hoban said. “I’m so glad these honors recognize their hard work and the deep knowledge of their beats that they bring to the table.”
Gender and inmate health reporter Rachel Crumpler won three first-place awards, including one shared with NC Health News founder and editor Rose Hoban for a breaking news story on the late-night vote to change North Carolina’s abortion regulations.
Crumpler’s other winning stories chronicled abortion changes in the state after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision; she also profiled an Alamance County program that helps formerly incarcerated women get back on their feet.
Medicaid and rural health reporter Jaymie Baxley won a first-place award for an interactive graphic detailing how the state budget would address rural health needs. He also won first place for a video explaining Medicaid unwinding, the process where states could remove people from Medicaid rolls after the expiration of a federal provision that had prevented that during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Below are links to the work recognized by the Press Association.
First-place prizes went to:
- Rachel Crumpler, news enterprise, for her coverage of abortion. Read the stories:
- Rachel Crumpler and Rose Hoban, breaking news, on the late-night vote to change North Carolina’s abortion regulations.
- Rachel Crumpler, beat feature reporting, on the Benevolence Farm program for formerly incarcerated women.
- Jaymie Baxley, video, Medicaid unwinding explainer.
- Jaymie Baxley, illustration/photo illustration/print or interactive graphics, for an interactive bar graph on rural health spending in the budget.
Second-place prizes went to:
- Rose Hoban, video, Cooper puts veto stamp on abortion restrictions bill.
- Anne Blythe, sports enterprise reporting, on heat guidelines for student athletes.
- Anne Blythe, ledes (the story introductions that draw a reader in and keep them engaged). Read them:
- Jennifer Fernandez, graphic/illustration, HPV vaccinations declining.
- Taylor Knopf, general news reporting, ‘Death by distribution’ law.
- Jennifer Fernandez, education reporting, Care to Care program for hospitalized children.
- Jaymie Baxley, beat news reporting, series of stories on Medicaid unwinding. Read the stories:
- Rachel Crumpler, arts and entertainment reporting, Prison to Promise podcast.
- Staff, headline writing:
Third-place prizes went to:
Hoban, a registered nurse and journalist in North Carolina for nearly two decades, founded NC Health News in 2011 to fill in the critical reporting gap on health care as newsrooms across the state reduced or eliminated coverage.
The staff of full-time reporters, freelancers, interns and support team are scattered across the state. Add in the board, which is also geographically dispersed, and NC Health News’ footprint extends from Waynesville to Ahoskie.
NC Health News is an independent 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering health care in the state, employing the highest journalistic standards of fairness, accuracy and extensive research.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
