Columbia Missourian wins 52 Missouri Press Association Awards
Olivia Anderson won first place for her photograph of graduate student Patrick Luo holding a sign at the Mizzou Without Rape rally in October at Traditions Plaza.
The Columbia Missourian, the School’s digital-first community newsroom that covers news and sports, won 52 awards at the 2022 Missouri Press Association Better Newspaper Contest. It also won the Gold Cup for Class 2 dailies for winning the most awards in its circulation division.
The Missourian competed in the division of newspapers with circulations from 5,001 to 15,000 and won awards for written stories, visuals, multimedia, graphics, design and projects produced in 2021.
This year’s results were announced at the Missouri Press Association convention on Saturday, Sept. 17 at the Lodge of Four Seasons in the Lake of the Ozarks.
With over 40 different categories, The Missourian has won awards for Best Photo Package, Best Feature Story and Best Information Graphic, to name a few.
- Best Headline Writing and Best News or Feature Special Section: Missourian staff won first place for the two categories. Missouri Tourism was recognized as best special section.
- Best News Photograph: Olivia Anderson won first place for her photograph of graduate student Patrick Luo holding a sign at the Mizzou Without Rape rally in October at Traditions Plaza. Tristen Rouse won third place with his photo of someone walking past former Rep. Rick Roeber’s door.
- Best Editorial Cartoon: John Darkow won first for his piece titled “FrankenHawley,” which illustrated his rendition of former Sen. Jack Danforth regretting his decision of promoting Josh Hawley. Darkow also won second place for his piece titled “Wally Funk- Stephens College.”
- Community Service: Jacob Moscovitch and Hannah Barczykowski’s story about local sisters winning the Missourian spelling bee won first place. The 2021 Progress Awards won second place in the category.
- Best Photo Package: Cory Macneil won first place with his black-and-white photo package about the groundskeepers of the Mizzou Botanic Garden. Lily Dozier won third place for her photo package of a family with quadruplets getting vaccinated.
- Best Feature Story: Ella McCarthy won first place with her entry titled “Under the Overpass,” a story about an expansive homeless encampment underneath an overpass in east Columbia. Connor Giffin won third place for his story about the Missouri River Relief.
- Best Story About the Outdoors: Emma Veidt won first place for her story in Vox Magazine about Black adventurers reclaiming nature in white-dominated outdoor spaces. Regan Mertz won second place in this category with her story about Noppadol Paothong, a photographer from Thailand.
- Best News Story: Jose Luis Adriano and Jonathan Jain won first place for their story about COVID-19 vaccines in rural Missouri.
- Best Information Graphic: Regan Mertz’s infographic titled “Mayors pledge to help the monarchs” won first place. Connor Giffin won second place with an infographic about how vaccines really work. Danielle DuClos’ infographic titled “Safer than Smoking?” won third place. Khue Nguyen’s infographic titled “Out of the raging fire” received an honorable mention.
- Best Story About Rural Life or Agriculture: Anna Watson won first place for her story about Missouri Founding Farms and their history. Charlie Drape won a second-place award for his story about 3D printing labs helping Amish horses.
- Best Sports Feature Photograph: Irynka Hromotska won first place for her photo of Jefferson City’s homecoming royalty during a Friday football game at Adkins Stadium. Madi Winfield won second place for her photo of Elsie Butterfield at Rock Bridge in Columbia. Maya Bell won honorable mention for her photo of Hickman freshman Zaira Zuno and junior Ataliya Bass.
- Multimedia Reporting: Emma Eaton, Ciara McCaskill, Kalyn Laire, Zachary Linhares, Bradford Siwak and Hunter Pendleton won first place for their multimedia package about Norborne Hardin-Central football.
- Best Editorial Pages, Best Coverage Of Elections, Best Overall Design, Best COVID-19 Coverage: Missourian staff won second place for these four categories.
- Best News or Feature Obituary: Grace Nieland and Mae Bruce won second place for their story about community leader James Whitt.
- Best Photo Package: Megan Matty and Cara Penquite won second place for photos of high school basketball teams from all over the nation play in the Norm Stewart Classic.
- Best Photo Illustration: Alessia Tagliabue’s illustration entry titled “Fermentation Frenzy” won second place. Makalah Hardy earned an honorable mention for her illustration titled “Talkin’ trash.”
- Best Investigative Reporting: Julia Garlich won second place for her Lost in the fight series (part 1 and part 2). Mallory Daily’s story about disappearing agriculture regulations won third place.
- Best Sports News Story or Package: Owen Krucoff’s story about naming rights for universities won second place. Jack Soble won honorable mention for his story about Missouri athletes and their merch.
- Best Video: Irynka Hromotska won second place for her video about Booches, an iconic restaurant in downtown Columbia. Minh Connors, Sara Williams and Jacob Luebbert’s video about family demolition derby teams won them an honorable mention.
- Best Front Page, Best News or Feature Series, Best Page Design, Best News or Feature Special Section: Missourian staff won third place for these four categories. A series on homelessness won for Feature Series, and Boomtown, a special section for older adults, won for in the Special Section category.
- Best News or Feature Obituary: Claudia Hope Levens won third place for her life story on Ruth Ann Brandon.
- Best Story About History: Janae McKenzie won third place for her story about Missouri blacksmiths keeping the craft alive.
- Best Breaking News Story: Alex Naughton’s story about the School of Medicine faculty salary cut won third place.
- Best Sports Photograph: Elizabeth Underwood received third place for her photo of a women’s wrestling match at Rock Bridge High School.
- Best Sports Pages: Missourian staff won honorable mention for this category.
- Best Columnist-Serious: David Webber received an honorable mention in this category.
- Best Feature Photograph: Megan Matty won an honorable mention for her photo of Kate Mehanrunning to her new sorority house on Bid Day.
- Best Business story: Skylar Laird won an honorable mention for her story about Main Squeeze, a downtown business known for smoothies, juice bars and vegetarian menu.
- Best Coverage of Government: Brooke Muckerman won honorable mention for her city manager search series.
Updated: July 3, 2023