The Better Government Association received finalist nominations from Editor & Publisher for four stories the BGA wrote within the past year, two of which were part of collaborations with WBEZ, Chicago’s NPR affiliate.
The international award, now in its 23rd year, honors the best media-affiliated websites across 30 categories. Judges for the 2018 EPPY Awards reviewed more than 300 entries. The BGA entries were in categories for websites with under 1 million unique visitors per month.
The stories covered a range of topics, from nuclear power and police shootings to broken elevators in public housing and questionable graduation rates in city colleges.
Two of the stories are competing against each other in the same category and both were done as part of collaborations with WBEZ.
The first, “Taking Cover,” was a multi-part investigation in January that examined lax oversight of suburban police involved in shootings. The second, “Trapped,” which was published in June, examined how elevators in public housing apartment buildings placed residents, especially senior citizens, at risk. Both stories were named finalists for Best Collaboration Investigative/Enterprise Feature.
The BGA also received a nomination for “The Graduates,” from November 2017, which exposed how City Colleges of Chicago awarded thousands of questionable degrees by manipulating data. The story, published by Crain’s Chicago Business, was nominated for Best Investigative/Enterprise Feature.
The fourth investigation that received a nomination was “Power Struggle,” a three-part series published late last year that examined soft oversight of the nuclear power industry in Illinois and across the nation. The series, published with the Associated Press, was nominated for Best Community Service.
The EPPY Award winners will be announced on Oct. 24.
