The Frontier won first place in the digital media category at the Oklahoma Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest on Saturday.
“Fantastic website,” the judges said. “Definitely the standard among applicants.”
The Frontier competed against print and digital media outlets from across the state in the contest.
Frontier Staff Writers Garrett Yalch and Clifton Adcock were awarded the A-Mark Prize for Investigative Reporting for their investigation of organized crime in Oklahoma’s marijuana industry. The series of stories was reported jointly with reporters Sebastian Rotella and Kirsten Berg of ProPublica. The series also took first prize in the in-depth reporting category.
“This was the best piece of investigative journalism I have read in a long time,” the judges wrote about the series. “This piece dove completely into an underworld that I was unaware of and really put a face to the effects of its aftermath. I found myself up late reading it because I was so sucked into the work. Excellent work and impressive journalism.”
Frontier Staff Writer Ashlynd Huffman won first place in the news story category for her reporting on three prisoners who died at a privately run Oklahoma prison.
“Thorough and complete coverage of the issue – well done keeping reader engaged,” the judges noted.
Frontier Executive Editor Dylan Goforth was awarded third place in the business story category for his reporting on the collapse of the Oklahoma sports media startup company Sellout Crowd.
