The Long Beach Post won 32 awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for its work in 2022—including first place in the prestigious public service journalism category for its year-long investigation into homelessness.
The Post’s series on homelessness, Locked Out, looked “beyond the heat of political rhetoric to identify the roots of problems and the solutions that might rise from these insights,” judges for the contest wrote.
The entries submitted for the series reflected “exhaustive work” that delivered answers “through detailed reporting that goes several levels deep.”
As part of that series, a story looking at a local woman’s quest to help her mentally ill son won first place in the seperate categories of health reporting and writing. Two documentary-style videos associated with the project by Cheantay Jensen—one about the deplorable state of motels used to house homeless individuals and another about a woman struggling to use a housing voucher—won first and second place, respectively, in the news video category.
The Long Beach Post also won several other first-place awards:
- Arts and Entertainment coverage, for a feature and video on a man who grew up undocumented and queer by Laura Anaya-Morga. “Absolutely riveting,” the judges wrote.
- The Post swept the breaking news category, winning first place for its coverage of a Downtown stabbing spree; second place for its coverage of a fatal crash near the Bottoms Up Tavern; and third place for coverage of a 7-year-old boy killed while crossing the street. All of this coverage was led by breaking news reporter Fernando Haro, along with Managing Editor Jeremiah Dobruck, Anaya-Morga and other staff members.
- Tim Grobaty won first place in the columns category for his pieces on a questionable city birthday celebration and the unearthing of a time capsule.
- Brandon Richardson won first place for his coverage of business and the economy for several of his stories about the port complex.
- Anaya-Morga also won first place for feature writing for a story about a hair salon that prioritizes inclusion.
- Dennis Dean and Josh Reed won first place for home page layout and design.
- Haro won first place for breaking news photo for capturing a building on fire.
- Jensen also won first place for feature video for a story on ceramicist Vanndearlyn Vong.
- Jason Ruiz and Anthony Pignataro for coverage of local elections, for their profiles of mayoral candidates Rex Richardson and Suzie Price.
The Post’s Jackie Rae was also recognized this year for The Word podcasts, and several of the Post’s newsletters (by Ruiz and Tess Kazenoff) received awards for the first time.
The CNPA is a statewide trade group that recognizes the best work in print, digital and student journalism each year. The organization received more than 3,000 entries for the 2022 California Journalism Awards, and winners were named on social media in May.