Matter News earned a pair of awards at the statewide Ohio’s Best Journalism Contest, with winners informed via email last week.
Sponsored by the Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), the awards honored work done in 2023.
Matter’s awards included a first-place win in Best Editorial/Criticism Writing for Jack Shuler’s ongoing “Dispatches from the Overdose Crisis” column. Published on the second Thursday of each month, the column centers those organizations and individuals working on the frontlines to try and turn the tide on an opioid epidemic that continues to enact a heavy toll statewide. (One recent column unpacked the reality that surges in overdose deaths are often a function of prohibition.)
In addition, Shuler was also awarded first place in Best Digital/Freelance Writer. “Powerful writing,” the judges wrote in their comments. “Shuler masterfully uses details and spare language to create scenes, then backs them up with research and data.”
The Ohio’s Best Journalism Contest announcement follows Matter News winning a pair of awards earlier this year from the Cleveland Press Club for “The Long Shadow of the Columbus Vice Unit.” Written and reported in collaboration with Columbus Monthly, the feature documented the disbandment of the corrupted police unit, which came under intense scrutiny in the wake of the 2018 arrest of adult film star Stormy Daniels.
