Anatomy of an award-winning article
I don't know what it says about me, but winning one of the Illinois Press Associations awards isn't as exciting as it used to be. Not unless I win first place. So when this year's results were announced and I found out that I got a second-place award for news reporting (in the mid-size weekly community newspaper category), I didn't even mention it on social media, or here, for that matter.
But what caught my attention was the exact reason why it was one of the finalists in the first place.
I got it for a relatively routine Austin Weekly News article about a suburban bank buying up a smaller bank with the long history in Austin. I didn't really think too much about it. Here's what the judges wrote.
“Thorough research here. A lazy reporter would simply have parroted the press release about the acquisition. You sought out comments from officials, and I was impressed you went on the bank websites to see what contrasting services were offered between the two companies.Very informative and well done!”
To give credit where credit was due, my editor specifically asked me to reach out to both banks' officials. I probably wouldn't have done it my own. But I will take full credit for the second part. At this point, I already did a couple of articles about issues Austin's low-income residents had with setting up checking accounts, so I quite deliberately check to see what ABC Bank offered to address that, and whether Old Second, the bank that bought it, had anything similar. The simple fact is that you don't really see banks that don't have banks coming to the West Side unless they already have branches there. And while ABC Bank had roots in the area, Old Second didn't - so it was only fair to ask how the residents who won't really have any alternatives in the community be affected.
If Old Second did offer something to help residents who may hard time qualifying for checking accounts to set up checking accounts, I thought it was important to point it out. And, given ABC Bank's long history of community involvement, I thought it was important to ask whether Old Second would continue that.
Thing is, it wouldn't have occurred to me to ask those questions if I wasn't already covering the West Side for years at this point. So this is another one of those cases where having some experience covering a community (or, in this case, several communities) really comes in handy.
But what caught my attention was the exact reason why it was one of the finalists in the first place.
I got it for a relatively routine Austin Weekly News article about a suburban bank buying up a smaller bank with the long history in Austin. I didn't really think too much about it. Here's what the judges wrote.
“Thorough research here. A lazy reporter would simply have parroted the press release about the acquisition. You sought out comments from officials, and I was impressed you went on the bank websites to see what contrasting services were offered between the two companies.Very informative and well done!”
To give credit where credit was due, my editor specifically asked me to reach out to both banks' officials. I probably wouldn't have done it my own. But I will take full credit for the second part. At this point, I already did a couple of articles about issues Austin's low-income residents had with setting up checking accounts, so I quite deliberately check to see what ABC Bank offered to address that, and whether Old Second, the bank that bought it, had anything similar. The simple fact is that you don't really see banks that don't have banks coming to the West Side unless they already have branches there. And while ABC Bank had roots in the area, Old Second didn't - so it was only fair to ask how the residents who won't really have any alternatives in the community be affected.
If Old Second did offer something to help residents who may hard time qualifying for checking accounts to set up checking accounts, I thought it was important to point it out. And, given ABC Bank's long history of community involvement, I thought it was important to ask whether Old Second would continue that.
Thing is, it wouldn't have occurred to me to ask those questions if I wasn't already covering the West Side for years at this point. So this is another one of those cases where having some experience covering a community (or, in this case, several communities) really comes in handy.