The Moab Sun News and our reporters won four awards in total in the 2021 Top of the Rockies contest, sponsored by the Colorado chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. The regional journalism contest honors reporters and news outlets in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
The Moab Sun News editorial and design staff was awarded second place in the Front Page Design category for our COVID-19 special edition. The special edition was put out in March 2020 and our staff worked overtime to make sense of public health orders and business closures to create a powerful resource for our community to understand how the pandemic was going to affect Grand County.
Staff writer Rachel Fixsen was honored with a second place award in the category of News Reporting – Single Story for her article “Classic Moab climb collapses: Climbers react to alteration of ‘Jah Man’ route.”
Our reporter Anastasia Hufham was awarded two third place prizes. Her piece “Ensuring every vote counts,” which chronicled people in San Juan County working to ensure residents were properly registered and able to vote, was awarded in the Social Justice Reporting category. Hufham was also awarded for her coverage of San Juan County as a whole in the category of Best Beat Reporting.
Congrats to the other winners up and down the Rockies, and three cheers for strong local journalism!
