The Greater Cincinnati Society of Professional journalists awarded LINK nky with some of their top Excellence in Journalism awards for 2023, including best written reporter, best new reporter, best freelancer and the Camilla Warrick award, which honors journalists who make an impact on their community.
LINK also received honors for individual reporting, from a series on affordable housing to business features and profiles.
We’ve heard from the community, asking which specific work our team was honored for, so we wanted to share the specific award-winning articles.
We’ll start with best overall written reporter, which went to Campbell County reporter Haley Parnell. Haley has been a professional reporter since 2022, when LINK hired her not long after her graduation from the University of Cincinnati. Haley’s work can be found here.
Judges had this to say about Haley’s work: “Haley Parnell writes about people…who they are, what they do, what they endure, how they cope and how they serve. I have a better picture and understanding of Cincinnati through her writing.”
Haley received this award in competition with news outlets and reporters with far more resources and experience, and we are beyond proud of her.
Haley also won the Camilla Warrick award, named after the late Cincinnati Enquirer and Post reporter. It honors journalists in any medium who use their professional role to make an impact on people in the community.
Housing is one of the most pervasive issues facing Northern Kentucky, and Haley has been covering the region’s housing crisis through the lens of the former Victoria Square apartments for more than a year.
Throughout that time, Haley has been cultivating relationships with the people who used to call Victoria Square home – and who have now had to move in with family members or out of the area altogether.
She documented the property’s purchase, followed by renovations including a paint job. Rent for one apartment went from $710 per month in 2022 to $1,395 per month in 2023.
Haley’s initial reporting helped the soon-to-be evicted tenants receive more time and money to move. It also led to community organizations coming together to do what they could.
But more than that, Haley’s reporting has kept top of mind a conversation about Northern Kentucky’s housing crisis and its effect on, well, everyone.
Haley’s nuanced reporting shines a light on a lack of affordable housing without villainizing anyone. Rather, Haley takes a solutions-focused approach to her reporting to show all the ways Northern Kentuckians are coming together to help each other. Click here to read Haley’s reporting on this issue.
For the second year in a row, a LINK nky reporter won outstanding new reporter at the SPJ awards. This year, the award went to Kenton County reporter Nathan Granger, whose work can be found here.
At LINK nky’s second birthday celebration in October of 2023, Nathan took the podium.
We asked him to thank everyone who was there for their support and that he couldn’t do his job without it.
Instead, just like any good journalist, he started with a story.
Before he got the call from LINK in 2023, Nathan had cobbled together a handful of contract and part-time jobs because he was determined to make his dream of being a journalist come true.
He was this close to giving up.
Then he received our call. As part of his speech at our birthday party, he said:
“I can’t tell you how profoundly vindicated I felt in getting that phone call, how profoundly vindicated I feel being able to serve a community by doing the thing I love to do,” he said. “At the risk of sounding sentimental, LINK saved me, and I only hope that my work as a reporter here has helped the community.”
Our own Robin Gee, who previously worked with Fort Thomas Matters before it became part of LINK, won best overall freelance reporter.
Because of the state of the news industry, there are many more freelance reporters here and throughout the country than there are full-time reporters.
As such, Robin had big competition on this award, and her work covering neighborhoods in Campbell County is truly impactful. She works every day to help the community understand how complicated city meetings and resolutions affect their daily lives. Click here to read Robin’s work.
LINK also won best website. As a barely 3-year-old organization, this is a huge honor, since we went up against news organizations that have been around for decades. If you are reading this story, you’re probably already here, but just in case, our website can be found at linknky.com.
Our business reporter, Kenton Hornbeck, won two awards related to work he did last year.
The first was for best business/consumer news reporting for a story he wrote on that found fewer Northern Kentucky teens are working and how that affects the labor force.
The judges said that Kenton made good use of data sets and narrative stories in his reporting on this story. Click here to read it.
Kenton also won the award for best business feature/analysis column for his reporting on Newport’s risqué past. The story delves into the extent to which the adult entertainment industry was woven into the fabric of Newport’s past and how it has changed into a city populated by coffee shops, small retailers, community grocers and family restaurants. Read the story here.
Nathan and Haley collectively won the best series award for their work looking at affordable housing in Northern Kentucky. The series included the previously mentioned story Haley wrote about the former Victoria Square apartments in Newport; a story Nathan wrote (with help from former contributor Alecia Ricker) about how many people and businesses in Northern Kentucky are being priced out; a look at whether high rent prices are making Covington less inclusive; and a group of Covington residents who petitioned for affordable housing at the former IRS site.
The judges said the stories made up an “interesting series on a topic that is on the minds of many.”
Our team was also finalists for several other awards, including:
- Contributor Shannon Paul’s story on how to help loved ones navigate the maze of elder care, which the judges said included “good solutions for the communities”;
- Nathan Granger’s story on not everyone being happy about Brent Spence Bridge construction;
- Executive Editor Meghan Goth’s investigation into a local pain doctor;
- Haley Parnell’s story in the education category about Northern Kentucky school districts tackling student homelessness;
- A story LINK nky worked with University of Cincinnati students on about smoking bans in Northern Kentucky;
- and Meghan Goth’s feature story about how a noise complaint introduced Northern Kentucky to a Mainstrasse feud.
We are so proud of our small but mighty team here at LINK nky, and want to thank the community for letting us tell your stories.
