Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: Osseo/Maple Grove/Champlin/ Dayton Press Entry Title: Flipping success Entry Credit: Sam Johnson Judge Comment: Excellent read, excellent detail, excellent organization. It is told simply and without boosterism. This piece is a poster child on how to organize a story with a lot of moving parts - there's no repetition, and it keeps pushing forward. A great read that held my interest from the first graf to the last.
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: Tower/Ely/Cook-Orr - The Timberjay Entry Title: Clean Water Rules Entry Credit: Marshall Helmberger Judge Comment: Alarming story, one that needs to be told and talked about. Undeniably wonky - and for non-science readers will be a bit of a chew - but a critical story that needs to be told and acted upon. Would like to know a little more about the politics that have gone into this decision - not to mention the lack of enforcement on other rules - and if politics can ultimately reverse it. I don't know how this issue turned out, but I'm motivated now to find out. Will be googling Marshall Helmberger to see what else he's written on this.
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: Waseca County News Entry Title: Months after society has reopened, restaurants still can't find workers Entry Credit: Julian Hast Judge Comment: Even-handed explainer on the workforce shortage does a good job laying out the problems of business owners and what they suspect is causing their labor shortage, with a more sober assessment of local experts. Tells a compelling story in a non-hysterical way. There were several stories about the workforce shortage in this category; this one gains the edge because of its focus on the situation locally.
Competition Comment: This category started out with a bunch of nice business features; and ended with me struggling to choose three winners amid some very compelling stories - both hard-hitting and featurey.
Note: Noticeably absent from the three winners in the business category are the two related pieces from the Forest Lake Times. Here is my reason why, and feel free to share with them:
"Extremely fine explainers on how the pandemic caused disruption in the restaurant business, and in the end I feel like I know these people and feel for them personally. However, with all the griping toward the gov's office, it would have behooved the writer to talk with state officials or achieve some understanding of the rules. I consider this a two-part story, and taken together they are a very compelling close-up look at businesses hanging on by a thread. The downside is that nowhere in here is any understanding of why the rules came down as they did. For a story this good that's a problem of fairness; but even more than that, the reader needs to understand why it went down like it did."
