Mission Local bags two Society of Professional Journalists awards

[ad_1] This here publication last week took home two more awards from the Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists for in-depth coverage and analysis of the sort you expect — and demand — of us.  Senior editor Joe Rivano Barros and former data reporter Will Jarrett were honored in the “Explanatory Journalism” category for…

Photographer

Karl The Fog

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This here publication last week took home two more awards from the Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists for in-depth coverage and analysis of the sort you expect — and demand — of us. 

Senior editor Joe Rivano Barros and former data reporter Will Jarrett were honored in the “Explanatory Journalism” category for the mammoth effort of tracing and documenting the Russian dolls-like series of interconnected organizations funneling billionaires’ dollars into San Francisco politics. 

A man stands on stage holding a microphone, while another person plays the piano. The stage is lit with colorful lights and draped with curtains.
Joe Rivano Barros, who with Will Jarrett won for the Big Money SF work. Photo by Abigail Van Neely

The series, titled “BigMoneySF,” included Rivano Barros’ profile of Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, the largest donor over the last several election cycles, and Jarrett’s interactive chart, a stunning accomplishment requiring months of work unearthing reams of financial data structured in a manner so as to render it challenging to unearth. Jarrett’s signature achievement preceded a lucrative and successful March election for the BigMoneySF groups — and this month’s much more lucrative and much less successful election. 

“Money in politics is an ancient story but the amounts here in San Francisco are truly eye-watering,” said Rivano Barros. “Will’s graphics in particular made it effortless for readers to see the connections between big donors, and I do think other outlets have paid more attention to campaign finance since.”

Mission Local was also awarded top honors in the “Technology Reporting” category. 

Individual articles included Yujie Zhou’s reporting on the days and nights of our city’s aspirational AI pioneers; Jarrett and Joe Eskenazi’s discovery and graphic presentation of the then-55 fire department reports of autonomous vehicles interfering in emergency scenes; and Eskenazi’s reporting on the aftermath of a Cruise autonomous vehicle pinning and dragging a pedestrian.   

“I can’t say enough about how rare it is to find a news site as good as Mission Local, and I love that we’re always trying to figure out how to make it even better,” said Lydia Chávez, the site’s executive editor. “It is definitely a site worthy of our readers’ support.”  

A man gestures energetically in front of a seated audience in an elegant room with chandeliers and patterned walls.
Joe Eskenazi, maestro and managing editor of Mission Local. Photo by Abigail Van Neely

Managing Editor/Columnist. Joe was born in San Francisco, raised in the Bay Area, and attended U.C. Berkeley. He never left.

“Your humble narrator” was a writer and columnist for SF Weekly from 2007 to 2015, and a senior editor at San Francisco Magazine from 2015 to 2017. You may also have read his work in the Guardian (U.S. and U.K.); San Francisco Public Press; San Francisco Chronicle; San Francisco Examiner; Dallas Morning News; and elsewhere.

He resides in the Excelsior with his wife and three (!) kids, 4.3 miles from his birthplace and 5,474 from hers.

The Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists named Eskenazi the 2019 Journalist of the Year.

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Source: missionlocal.org