The Maine Monitor received five awards, including three first-place accolades, on Tuesday from the National Newspaper Association Foundation, one of the largest newspaper associations in the country.
Monitor government accountability reporter Josh Keefe took home the first and second place awards in the investigative/in-depth reporting category. His “Stop Punching Him” series, co-reported with Bangor Daily News deputy investigations editor Callie Ferguson, earned a first place accolade, while his reporting on one Maine woman’s fight to regain custody of her son received second place.
The “Stop Punching Him” investigation into the March 2024 arrest of Justin Savage by The Monitor and BDN challenged the Maine State Police’s narrative of the arrest and showed how the incident casts doubt on the state police’s perfect record of clearing officers. Earlier this year, state lawmakers on the criminal justice and public safety committee received a briefing from Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck on the agency’s use of force and complaint review policies after several lawmakers expressed interest in light of the Monitor/BDN reporting.
Monitor health reporter Emily Bader and senior public health reporter Rose Lundy earned a first place award in a category recognizing newsrooms for coverage of the opioid crisis in the communities they cover. Among the stories that were collectively recognized were Bader’s coverage of how Maine counties and municipalities have spent opioid settlement funds, legislation to make opioid settlement spending more transparent and a school for teens struggling with addiction, as well as Lundy’s analysis that found far more Medicare patients in Maine — overlooked during the opioid crisis — are now receiving treatment for their addiction to opioids.
Bader also received a second place accolade in the health reporting category for her analysis of data from The Trace’s Gun Violence Data Hub. Her reporting found that more older Mainers died by gun suicide than they did in car crashes over a 15-year period.
Daniel O’Connor, who covers rural government for The Monitor and BDN, Monitor Local reporter Evan W. Houk and Monitor Local editor Judith Meyer received first place recognition in the best local government reporting category for their extensive coverage of the Washington County budget crisis that helped taxpayers understand the situation and why it was happening.
Meyer explained the newsrooms’ role in an episode of The Monitor’s monthly behind-the-scenes radio show in early January: “[Residents] were confused about what they had to pay back, and, over the last two-and-a-half months, I’ve seen people go from being angry to being frustrated to almost accepting this is their fate and how are they going to deal with it. So I think providing information in an explanatory way has helped settle down some of that.”
Established in 1885, the National Newspaper Association Foundation is the educational arm of the National Newspaper Association. Its mission is to promote news literacy, protect the First Amendment, and enhance the quality and capabilities of community journalists.
This year’s competition saw more than 700 awards given to 93 newspapers from around the country.
