Raw Story wins three national awards from women’s press organization

Three Raw Story investigations by investigative reporter Alexandria Jacobsonwon first place prizes in the National Federation of Press Women’s 2024 Professional Communications Contest.

Jacobson’s work was honored on June 22 at the organization’s national conference in St. Louis, Mo. Jacobson won first place in three categories:

• Continuing Coverage or Unfolding News for her series with Raw Story Editor-in-Chief Dave Levinthal, “Lawmakers, Law Breakers,” that identified at least 37 congressional violators of a federal conflicts-of-interest and financial disclosure law
• In-depth Reporting for “Losing Track,” a three-part series about various failures of the country’s enfeebled national security vetting system
• Specialty Articles: Education for “‘Too preposterous to be real’: College hires ‘pink slime’ publisher as journalism prof” about a Tennessee university’s controversial hire of an executive associated with a widely scrutinized conservative PAC-backed media network

“The NFPW professional communications contest puts a spotlight on outstanding entries from throughout the United States,” said Helen S. Plotkin, National Federation of Press Women professional contest director. “Our judges continue to comment about the high quality of entries they judge in the contest. The entries showcase high quality and exceptional efforts.”

Said Levinthal: “Alex has established herself as an investigative reporter whose journalism must be paid attention. Her work is exhaustive, relentless and fair, and Raw Story is honored that the National Federation of Press Women celebrated her efforts as it has.”

The National Federation of Press Women is a nationwide organization of women and men pursuing communications careers, including print and electronic journalism.

Nearly 2,000 contest entries were submitted from Canada and the United States across 36 states and Washington, D.C.

Jacobson’s entries previously won first place at the Illinois Woman’s Press Association’s 2024 Mate E. Palmer Professional Communications Contest before advancing to the national contest, where they earned top honors.

Her story, “‘Just sitting there’: Why a dormant government fund got another cash infusion,” won second place in the “Specialty Articles: Government or politics” category of the IWPA contest.

The National Federation of Press Women honors come during a year when Raw Story has been widely recognized for its investigative and explanatory journalism.

Earlier this month, Raw Story won four 2024 Folio Awards from the Fair Media Council for investigative reports on politics, government and extremism.

Levinthal this month also won a 2024 Dateline Award from the Society of Professional Journalists’ Washington, D.C., chapter, for a series that unveiled how South Carolina public military college The Citadel closed ranks to support honorary degree recipient Rudy Giuliani.

In April, Jacobson won the Sidney Award for her report on the shambolic state of the U.S. Postal Service's police force amid spikes in mail theft and assault on carriers.

Editor & Publisher magazine named Raw Story the best news and political blog of 2023. Other recent honors include a Best in Business Award from the Society Advancing Business Editing and Writing and an ION Award for investigative journalism.

Founded in 2004, and now celebrating its 20th anniversary, Raw Story is America’s largest independently-owned political news site.