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From the Department of Shameless Self-Promotion: WW took home nine prizes at the AAN Awards, a national contest recognizing the best work by alternative news media in 2024.
Among our honors: the Jim Ridley Award for outstanding arts criticism, a first prize won by Andrew Jankowski for his review of Triangle Productions’ staging of Little Shop of Horrors (“Season’s Bleedings,” WW, Dec. 3, 2024). “By arranging his words in a manner that amounts to music,” the judges wrote, “Andrew manages to mimic the play’s pleasantries and entertain through the last note.”
WW also scored second prizes for Anthony Effinger’s explanatory reporting on graffiti, Sophie Peel’s beat reporting on donation swapping in voter-owned elections, and our 50th anniversary issue edited by Audrey Van Buskirk and Chris Lydgate.
“This is outstanding watchdog reporting,” a judge said of Peel’s stories.
“Answered so many questions, even some I hadn’t thought of myself as I was reading,” another said of Effinger’s work.
Peel took home another second prize for short-form news story, awarded for her inquiry into arts spending by former Mayor Ted Wheeler’s chief of staff. Lucas Manfield tied for runner-up in long-form news story for his examination of gang activity abetted by guards in the Multnomah County Jail. Effinger won a third prize for long-form feature for his profile of psychedelics entrepreneur Frank Li. And Briana Cieri was awarded a third prize for designing an in-house marketing campaign for local organizations that make Portland better.
Nigel Jaquiss, now with the Oregon Journalism Project, received second place in a new category, the AAN Excellence in Journalism Award, for his story on the unintended consequences of Oregon’s Bottle Bill (“House of Cans,” WW, Feb. 7, 2024).
