The New England Newspaper & Press Association named Rhode Island Current as the region’s top digital news outlet of 2024 at an awards ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Janine L. Weisman/Rhode Island Current)
Rhode Island Current was honored as the region’s digital news publication of the year by the professional trade organization for newspapers in all six New England states at an awards luncheon Saturday in Providence.
The New England Newspaper & Press Association (NENPA) celebrated distinguished publications and outstanding achievements in community journalism during the organization’s annual Fall Publisher’s Conference at the Omni Providence. The Newspapers of the Year and Online Publications of the Year competition is judged by New England readers who are enlisted by the association to evaluate entries from a news consumer point of view. Judges evaluated quality of reporting, use of photos, design, overall utility and news value and how well news outlets reflected and cared about the communities they serve.
One of 39 state capital digital news outlets affiliated with the nonprofit States Newsroom, Rhode Island Current launched in March 2023 with a team of three reporters reporting to an editor-in-chief. All States Newsroom outlets operate as independent, nonpartisan and nonprofit news sites covering public policy and politics in their state and augment their coverage with reporting from State Newsroom’s Washington, D.C. bureau.
Rhode Island Current took the top honor in the online category and two runners-up — VT Digger based in Montpelier, Vermont, and Connecticut Inside Investigator based in Hartford, Connecticut — were named Distinguished Online Publications for 2024.
Accused of deceptive practices, R.I. solar company CEO operates in unregulated business climate
The competition required work published during the month of April 2024 and coverage that ran between June 1, 2023, and May 31, 2024. For the latter requirement, Rhode Island Current submitted its extensive coverage of the 1st Congressional District special election. Also submitted was Senior Reporter Nancy Lavin’s in-depth story published April 16, 2024, about a solar company operator navigating unregulated terrain and fighting off the state attorney general. The company’s leader, Jay Gotra, gave an unusually candid interview to Lavin who also talked to former customers with whom he had made amends.
Rhode Island news outlets were well represented among honorees in this year’s awards competition:
Providence Business News was named Newspaper of the Year in the Specialty Publications category.
Rhode Island Catholic was honored with a “Publick Occurrences” award for its four-part series on the conflict in Israel and Gaza, “Israel at War Series.” Entries in the Publick Occurrences competition are what news outlets consider their “very best work of the year.”
The Providence Journal’s “Nursing Home Investigation,” a series on abuse and neglect in Rhode Island nursing homes with a database of incidents, also received a Publick Occurrences” award.
Providence Journal photographer Kris Craig was honored with the Bob Wallack Community Journalism Award for outstanding work over his 39-year career.
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