Sacramento Bee wins 7 first-place prizes at California News Publishers Association awards

The Sacramento Bee was awarded seven first-place prizes and nearly 30 additional honors by the California News Publishers Association for exceptional journalism published in 2023.

Winners and finalists of the CNPA’s annual California Journalism Awards, including 19 top-three finishers from The Bee, were unveiled over the weekend at a gala in Los Angeles.

First-place prizes were given to six Bee stories, photos and multimedia packages:

• Reporters Ari Plachta and Joe Rubin won in the environment reporting category for what judges called “engaging enterprise reporting” that uncovered a lobbying campaign by SoCalGas . Their reporting revealed that the campaign had worked with the California Restaurant Association to oppose environmentally friendly natural gas bans in California restaurants.

• In the health reporting category, reporter Ariane Lange won for her exposition of a reproductive rights issue in the capital region and throughout California , a relatively unknown debate surrounding vaginal births after C-sections, which are banned at many hospitals despite the risks of the surgical procedure. Judges said Lange’s coverage was an “incredible feat of reporting that journalists should seek to emulate.

• Mathew Miranda was given first-place recognition for his immigration reporting detailing Diego de Jesús Delgado Meléndez’s journey from Venezuela to Sacramento , including a chartered flight from Florida as one of the 36 migrants Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis moved out of his state.

• For in-depth reporting, judges called a first-place story, “The Final Fall” by Michael McGough and Stephen Hobbs, “dynamite journalism.” McGough and Hobbs followed the story of an 18 year-old’s deadly accident, one of 28 deaths that have occurred at a Lodi skydiving center since its opening, and how skydiving is regulated in the state. Their coverage won first place for The Bee’s circulation size (Division 2) and in the open division (all circulation sizes), for the same category.

• A number of Bee reporters were awarded the first-place prize for an interactive map that followed 311 calls for fallen trees throughout Sacramento during severe storms that prompted six times the volume of calls as the previous January. David Newcomb, Gabby McCall, Brianna Taylor, Hector Amezcua and Maya Miller were those awarded, for work judges called “riveting from start to finish.”

• Visual journalist Paul Kitagaki Jr. also received a top prize for his “Tug of War” photo, which captured tension between protesters and security guards as they struggled at a protest over a banner that called for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war during the Democratic nominating convention.

The Bee won second or third place in 12 other categories.

Food and drink reporter Benjy Egel won second place in agricultural reporting for his story about how Sacramento farmers are leading a Californian mezcal and tequila movement , “Mezcalifornia.” Egel also secured second place in the sustainability category.

Theresa Clift’s homelessness coverage throughout 2023 also won second place, with judges noting the data, details and human element she used to cover a wide spectrum of the problem.

For reporting on Capital Public Radio’s financial crisis , second place was awarded to three Bee reporters who covered the news outlet’s layoffs and mismanagement : Sam Stanton, Ishani Desai and Grace Scullion.

A second-place prize was awarded to opinion journalist Robin Epley for her columns from the year, which spanned topics of local and state politics, homelessness and reproductive rights.

For audience and community engagement, the second annual Equity Lab’s, “Celebrating Sacramento’s Change Makers” project won second place. Miranda, Marcus D. Smith, Sonora Slater, Scullion and Shaanth Kodialam were recognized for their contributions to the compiled lists of Change Makers and Bee-hosted event to celebrate them.

For his visual coverage of the storms that felled so many trees in Sacramento, Hector Amezcua took home second place for a feature image that captured a dog sitting in front of one of the many uprooted trees.

Lange earned third-place recognition in the housing and land-use category for her story of a conflict between an elderly woman and her landlord over a $500 walkway fix charge , storytelling which judges described as: “you are there watching it unfold.”

Sara Nevis secured third place in the artistic photo category for “Mirror Image,” which captured an impressive stunt during the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds’ performance at Mather Airport during last year’s California Capital Airshow.

The Canopy, a service journalism newsletter by Taylor and Savanna Smith, won third place in the best newsletter category.

The Bee also received second-place recognition for its front page designs and a third-place prize for general excellence.

In total for CNPA’s 2023 award cycle, The Bee was honored with 36 top-five finishes. The full list of winners and finalists is available on the organization’s website.

CNPA in last year’s ceremony reduced the number of finalists from five to three, before returning this year to five finalists; The Bee earned 21 top-three finishes for work published in 2022 and 27 top-five finishes for 2021. This year’s ceremony combined awards for print and digital categories.