IBJ wins 11 honors, Indiana Lawyer wins five at SPJ’s Best of Indiana awards ceremony

IBJ won 11 awards and Indiana Lawyer won five honors in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Best of Indiana competition for work published in 2023.

The Indiana Pro Chapter of SPJ announced the awards at a dinner Friday at 502 East Event Centre in Carmel that honored newspaper, digital, radio, television and student journalists.

IBJ competes in a category for digital media and newspapers with a circulation of more than 10,000. Indiana Lawyer competes in the category for smaller newspapers.

IBJ’s design team, which does work for Indiana Lawyer as well, swept the graphics and illustration category. Designer Brad Turner won first place for an illustration in the Feb. 3 issue that ran with a story about doctors who were seeking to be freed from non-compete agreements. The illustration depicted doctors being set free from bird cages and flying away.

“Nice way to draw readers into the story,” a judge wrote about Turner’s illustration. “I love the concept of the cages trying to be tied to medical practice (with the snakes medical symbol on the top). Really great concept.”

Lead Designer Audrey Pelsor  won second place in the category for a timeline outlining the career of former Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard (which incorporated roundabouts), and designer Sarah Ellis won third place for an illustration accompanying an Innovation Issue story about technology in food production in Indiana. In all, Ellis won three awards.

Here are IBJ’s other awards:

Non-deadline story or series: third place, the Downtown Issue, Feb. 17, 2023

Medical or science reporting: second place, the AI Issue, Sept. 22, 2023

Arts and Entertainment writing: second place, Mickey Shuey, “Local Imax just one of 30 that can show ‘Oppenheimer’ as director intended,” July 21, 2023

Editorial writing: third place, Greg Weaver, “Historic Black cemetery deserves memorializing,” May 12, 2023

Election and campaign coverage: third place, Taylor Wooten, coverage of the Indianapolis mayoral race

Page 1 newspaper design: second place, Sarah Ellis

Design other than covers: second place, Sarah Ellis, for the design of the “Local Imax just one of 30 that can show ‘Oppenheimer’ as director intended” story, July 21, 2023

Best newsletter: second place, “The Rundown,” Taylor Wooten, Greg Weaver and former IBJ reporter Peter Blanchard

Indiana Lawyer reporter Alexa Shrake won three awards. Here’s what the Lawyer won:

Non-deadline story or series: second place, Alexa Shrake, “The waiting game: 2 years after end of war in Afghanistan, refugees in Indiana still awaiting asylum,” June 6, 2023

Coverage of government or politics: second place, Alexa Shrake and former Indiana Lawyer Editor Olivia Covington, for abortion-related stories

Criminal justice reporting: second place, Alexa Shrake and former Indiana Lawyer reporter Tyler Fenwick for stories about life after exoneration

Medical or science reporting: third place, Daniel Carson, for reporting about the effort to legalize marijuana

Election and campaign coverage: second place, Indiana Lawyer staff, for coverage of ballot access issues

The Indianapolis Star reporters Tony Cook, Alexandria Burris, Dayeon Eom and Ryan Martin won the top Story of the Year award for a series called “Bad Bars” that chronicled the problems caused when state and local officials can’t or won’t act to shut down troubled establishments.

The judges wrote that “Bad Bars is the kind of accountability journalism every community needs.”

WFYI’s Lee Gaines won the Journalist of the Year award for her coverage of children and education. The judges wrote that among her most compelling and “deeply reported” stories were those that “documented how some of the state’s most vulnerable children are isolated and restrained in violation of policy.”

SPJ honored the Indiana Public Access Counselor and attorney Luke Britt with its First Amendment Award. The Slaymaker Service to Journalism Award went to media attorney Dan Byron for his work with Indiana courts to put cameras in the courtroom.