Despite a tsunami warning earlier in the week, the Society of Professional Journalists Hawaii Chapter went ahead and held its annual awards dinner and ceremony on the 31st of July.
The ceremony is designed to recognize excellence in journalism in written, in voice, and by video in a variety of categories. Over the years, SPJ Hawaii has been able to open up the categories to encompass a larger variety of journalistic enterprises, including one-man blogs like Politics Hawaii with Stan Fichtman, while also recognizing “new media enterprises” like Civil Beat.
PC: PHwSF
SPJ has been recognizing online journalism for a while now, with Malia Zimmerman’s Hawaii Reporter being one of the first online newspapers in Hawaii. SPJ has also expanded to other non-traditional sources such as corporate newsletters.
With that, how did Politics Hawaii do in the awards? First, a setup – Politics Hawaii went in for six awards this year, including the coveted A-Mark Prize for Investigative Reporting (for the SMS shutdown saga). That was one of two awards this year that came with monetary prizes, a fact that the emcees noted in their presentation.
Politics Hawaii was in contention, but in the end, the award went to Hawaii News Now for a report on mishandled human remains… an effort worthy of the award.
The rest of the awards were for categories that range from the best 1-person blog to the best headlines. Last year, Politics Hawaii went in for a few awards, and received one for the first time in first place, the Best 1-Person Online Features/1-Person Features Blog.
PC: PHwSF
At the start of the ceremony, Politics Hawaii once again received First place for that award for its 2024 work. When walking up to receive the award, this blogger, who is also the publisher, looked at Stirling Morita, who runs SPJ Hawaii, and flashed two fingers to him, knowing that this is now the second year in getting the award.
Later on, after television, non-journalistic publications, such as corporate newsletters and student journalism, returned to the any-media category. That is where Politics Hawaii received more awards:
Second Place – Column Writing or Blog/Features or Sports
“The marriage of Hawaiian and Alaska Airlines – from proposal to taking the oath”
This was the combination of a number of stories that Politics Hawaii wrote about the merger of Hawaiian and Alaska Airlines from late 2023 to the actual merger in the latter part of 2024. Although it was a buyout of Hawaiian by Alaska, the way that the combination is unfolding has marriage vibes all over it.
Third Place – Column Writing or Blog/News
“The shutdown of SMS Marketing and Research” (with Andrew Walden)
Mr. Walden was a key member in helping to unfold this story, as it was happening almost in real time. From the time that the tip came to Politics Hawaii, Mr. Walden was a helpful voice in directing the story and even doing some of the legwork by going to the offices to see what was happening, confirming the closure.
As an update, the story has gone a bit cold, the court case in New York was found in favor of the creditor, and Mr. Timothy Carlson has not been reached for further comment on the situation.
Third Place – Headlines
“Best headlines of Politics Hawai‘i, 2024”
The awarding of this entry was a surprise. This category is laced with many great writers from other publications who, if they are looking for something memorable, think long and hard about what type of headline to put on a piece. It was the same level of rigor that got Hawaii Business first place in the “Editorial Cartoon/Illustration” category for their piece “How We Live Now”.
So for Politics Hawaii to get any place in this category was a surprise. When walking up to get the award, someone in the audience even said, “Wow, you’re surprised!”.
PC: PHwSF
Dang right!
For all those who won first place in categories, there was a short video where the judges’ comments were spoken. For the first place that Politics Hawaii got, the judges said the following,
“Reading these articles feels like receiving emails from a friend on topics I’m interested in. They make the reader feel like they are looped in on stories they are hungry to learn more about. Excellent writing style paired with good fact gathering.”
Entries for Hawaii were judged by the Louisville Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Considering that one source of information that this blogger gets on topics is the well-written “Letters from an American” by Heather Cox Richardson, her approach has been about sending a letter to a friend, telling them what is going on, with attached receipts.
Not to say that Politics Hawaii will become that way, the potential equivocation is nice, regardless.
All articles that are featured as a group can be found on the Politics Hawaii website. Punch in “Hawaiian Airlines” for the merger information, and “SMS” to see all the articles in the saga.
More information and the list of winners can be found at the Society of Professional Journalists Hawaii Chapter website. The list is downloadable from the link.
This is not successful without people helping establish it or cheer it on. One of them is Mr. Brandon Dela Cruz, who, about 10 years ago suggested that the domain name “Politics Hawaii” be obtained. It has proven to be a voyage of discovery between this blog, the podcast “Superfly Oz” that came before, and whatever will evolve from this. Brandon Dela Cruz is considered a co-founder and co-creator of the Politics Hawaii blog.