NEW YORK – April 9, 2024 – THE CITY, an independent nonprofit newsroom dedicated to serving the people of New York, is proud to announce that it has been named a finalist in four categories for the 2024 Deadline Club Awards. The categories include Newspaper or Digital Local News Reporting, Digital Innovation, Digital Video Reporting, and Digital Video Reporting.
Eric Adams Straw Donors Exposed, a finalist in the Newspaper or Digital Local News Reporting category, delves into Mayor Eric Adams’ fundraising for his mayoral campaign. Over a series of investigations conducted in collaboration with nonprofit newsroom Documented that spanned 7 months, George Joseph, Bianca Pallaro, Yoav Gonen, Haidee Chu, April Xu (Documented), Katie Honan and Tom Robbins unearthed multiple straw donors to the mayor’s 2021 campaign calling to into question the integrity of his fundraising efforts. Their reporting ultimately led to an investigation into the mayor’s campaign fundraising tactics.
Mental Health in NYC Public Schools, a finalist in the Digital Innovation category, focuses on New York City public schools’ failure to adequately provide resources for children experiencing mental health crises on school grounds. Following a series of reports from Abigail Kramer exposing the prevalence of in-school arrests of children in emotional crisis, THE CITY teamed up with the nonprofit education newsroom Chalkbeat to create an interactive news application that allows parents to compare schools’ arrest statistics.
“How Well Does Your Child’s School Support Student Mental Health?” includes data on over 1,500 public schools, from the number of guidance counselors and social workers to demographic data and educational outcomes.
In “Videos Show NYPD Chiefs Intervened Before Voiding of Ex-Cop’s Gun Arrest” Yoav Gonen and Jeff Basinger piece together a compelling account of the events that took place on Thanksgiving eve in 2021. A finalist in the Digital Video Reporting category, their report offers a rare, behind-the-scenes look at how two NYPD chiefs intervened in the case of a retired cop who was arrested for allegedly menacing three youths with a gun. Their coverage earned them the Digital Video Storytelling award for a small/medium newsroom by the Online News Association in 2023.
The multi-year investigation shook up one of the biggest police departments in the country, eventually leading to the department’s first woman and third Black commissioner abruptly announcing her departure from the NYPD over the handling of the case.
George Joseph’s investigation into the shuttering of a unit at Rikers to protect LGBTQ+ detainees is a finalist for The Mosaic Award that recognizes coverage that elevates the voices and experiences related to disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, social justice, equity and inclusion.
Despite a campaign promise to support a transgender housing unit introduced by former mayor Bill de Blasio, upon entering the mayor’s office, Adams quickly replaced the reform-minded jails commissioner with his own pick, Louis Molina, whose administration immediately pushed out top department leaders supportive of the LGBTQ+ unit and reversed course on gender-aligned housing. Over the following months, key unit staffers quit in protest, as their ability to do their work radically diminished. As the unit collapsed, numerous agency officials failed to take prompt action following trans women’s reports of sexual harassment, rape, and attempts at self-harm.
Following his reporting, the City Council passed legislation to support and protect incarcerated transgender, gender non-conforming, non-binary, & intersex (TGNCNBI) people, including a bill requiring the DOC to provideTGNCNBI detainees with services to prepare them for reentry into society.
The finalists were selected from over 550 entries for the Deadline Club’s 2024 Awards. The winners will be announced on May 16 at the Harvard Club.
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ABOUT THE CITY: THE CITY (thecity.nyc) is a nonprofit digital news platform whose mission is to produce free-to-read, local reporting that serves the people of New York City. Launched in 2019 to fill critical local reporting gaps, THE CITY covers New York’s uncovered neighborhoods, holds the powerful to account, and helps make sense of the greatest city in the world. THE CITY Scoop, its flagship newsletter, is delivered weekdays and Sunday, while additional newsletters serve New Yorkers with news they can use on housing, jobs and civic engagement.
ABOUT THE DEADLINE CLUB: The Deadline Club is the NYC chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, serving the New York area since 1925. SPJ, founded as Sigma Delta Chi in 1909, is the nation’s broadest-based organization for newspaper, magazine, television, radio and online journalists, as well as J-school educators, recent graduates and students. The Deadline Club currently has several hundred members and regulars, plus a guest list of a few thousand more, providing great contacts and camaraderie through its social networking mixers at trendy venues around the city.