The Online News Association has named The Trace the winner of two awards in the 2022 Online Journalism Awards, which celebrate ambitious and high-impact digital reporting, audience engagement, and storytelling.
At the awards ceremony in Los Angeles on September 24, The Trace joined LAist, Mission Local, and The Boston Globe as winners of the General Excellence in Online Journalism award, claiming the honor in the Small Newsroom category. It is the second General Excellence award bestowed by ONA on The Trace, which shared the prize in the micro-newsroom category in 2016.
The Trace also received the Gather Award for Community-Centered Journalism for its “Up the Block” project in Philadelphia, which tapped residents’ input to compile an accessible directory of resources available for Philadelphians affected by gun violence.
The two Online Journalism Awards follow a trio of honors received by The Trace and its partners this summer at the National Association of Black Journalists’ Salute to Excellence Awards.
In the General Reporting category, former Trace reporter J. Brian Charles was honored for “Baltimore thinks it can still defund the police,” co-published with Baltimore Magazine. The award for Digital Media: Online Project went to “Aftershocks,” a series of articles on the experiences of shooting survivors in Chicago that was reported by former Trace staffers Lakeidra Chavis and Daniel Nass and produced in partnership with Block Club Chicago, The Chicago Sun-Times, and La Raza Chicago. “Black Mothers are the Real Experts on Gun Violence,” by Arionne Nettles and Akoto Ofori-Atta, received an award in the newspaper Feature Story category. The project was a collaboration of The Trace, New York Times Opinion, Flint Beat, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, and The Oaklandside.
The awards coincided with four significant hires completed by The Trace in September, including the organization’s first Philadephia beat reporter, first public health reporter, first director of people and operations, and a new newsletter editor. Founded in 2015, The Trace remains the only news outlet dedicated to covering America’s gun violence crisis. To follow The Trace’s reporting, sign up for its weekly newsletters here. As a nonprofit organization, The Trace relies on grants, philanthropic gifts, and reader donations to sustain its work.
