The Valley Indy won seven awards Thursday from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists, including two first place wins for an investigation about O’Sullivan’s Island in Derby.
Five of the seven awards were first-place wins.
The nonprofit online publication has won 34 reporting awards since launching in June 2009.
The awards were announced Thursday in Wallingford during the annual “Excellence in Journalism” dinner sponsored by the state chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
The stories were judged by journalists from all over the U.S. The stories were published in 2014.
CT SPJ also handed out four scholarships to college students Thursday at the dinner.
Stories from the two-person staff at the Valley Indy received the following awards in the “online category:”
First Place, Investigative Story
“Is It Safe? Memos Unearth New Concerns About Pollution At O’Sullivan’s Island“
First Place, In-Depth Story
“Is It Safe? Memos Unearth New Concerns About Pollution At O’Sullivan’s Island“
First Place, Opinion Column
“Ansonia High School Has A Good Football Team“
A column chiding the local media for constantly pegging Ansonia as the poor place with good football players.
First Place, Audio Storytelling
“Are We Jerks When It Comes To Freedom Of Information?“
(A Very Special Edition Of Navel Gazing, The Valley Indy Podcast)
A podcast with Rick Dunne debating the process by which the Derby tax board put a city budget together last year.
First Place, General Reporting Series
“Derby Tax Watch“
A bunch of stories on Derby’s attempt to spend money on an infomercial not connected to Terry Bradshaw
Second Place, Spot News
“State Police Charge Oxford Man With Murder“
Third Place, General Reporting Series
“The Silva Murder Trial“
Coverage of a Derby homicide trial.
The Valley Indy is part of the Online Journalism Project.
Its sister publications include the New Haven Independent and the Branford Eagle. Both publications took home honors Thursday as as well, with the Branford Eagle alone receiving more than a dozen awards.
Former Valley Indy reporter Jodie Mozdzer Gil won second place in general reporting, series, for “CT Bus Diaries,” a project Gil, a journalism teacher at Southern Connecticut State University, put together with her Southern students and The New Haven Independent.
Gil also won second place, in-depth reporting for “ER visits and hospitalizations for asthma on the rise,” a story published by the Connecticut Health Investigative Team.
Money generated from entry fees for the annual contest pays for donations to state student SPJ chapters, contributions to the SPJ legal defense fund and scholarships for students, among other items.
