Press wins award for investigative journalism

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Ozaukee Press were recently awarded the top prizes in the inaugural Wisconsin A-Mark Prize for Investigative Journalism competition.

The Ozaukee Press team of Bill Schanen IV and Kristyn Halbig Ziehm won third place for the paper’s investigative series on a microchip plant proposed for land in the Town of Port Washington.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel team of Kelli Arseneau, Drake Bently, Ashley Luthern, Laura Schulte and Vanessa Swales won first place for the paper’s “Wisconsin Prison Crisis” series.

The Journal Sentinel’s Cleo Krejci won second place for “The Gray Zone,” a series that explored care for the aged.

Contest entries were evaluated based on the core criteria of journalism quality, presentation, responsiveness to community needs and impact by a panel of judges that consisted of retired Wisconsin newspaper and broadcast journalists and representatives of the University of Wisconsin- Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

The contest was administered by the Wisconsin Newspaper Association.

Ozaukee Press broke the news that hundreds of acres of mostly farmland in the Town of Port Washington were being put under contract for a potential microchip manufacturing facility and the secrecy surrounding the project, including the fact that City of Port Washington officials had promised to keep information about the project secret from the public by signing nondisclosure agreements.

The microchip plant project didn’t materialize, but the land that it would have occupied now is to be the site of a sprawling data center complex.

Commenting on the Ozaukee Press series, the judges said, “The only way to get to the bottom of the matter and protect the public’s right to know is through investigative reporting. The monthslong investigation probing the identity of the entity behind the land acquisitions and potential project reflects quality journalism, commitment to community needs and powerful impact.”

A-Mark, the sponsor of the contest, is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization  that supports and encourages journalism and investigative reporting through grants to organizations that offer awards recognizing journalistic excellence.