Lawrence Times wins Best Coverage of Diversity, Best Website and numerous other honors from Kansas Press Association

The Lawrence Times news team has been recognized with 17 awards in the Kansas Press Association’s 2023 Awards of Excellence, including three first-place awards judged alongside all contest divisions. 

Among our news team’s highest awards are first place among all divisions for Best Coverage of Diversity, Best Photo Illustration and Best Digital Project.

The first, Best Coverage of Diversity, is a new category this year, and we are deeply honored to have earned the recognition that most strongly reflects our mission as a publication. That selection was based on the work of Maya Hodison, equity reporter and engagement director, and Chansi Long, Lawrence Life reporter. 

In addition, Molly Adams — whose work as a professional photojournalist just started with The Lawrence Times in late May 2022 — was selected for third place in the Photographer of the Year category, which also included every division.

Adams won first and third place among all divisions in the category of Best Photo Illustration. 

Our entries were judged in Division VII — the publications with the largest circulation numbers in the state — or among all divisions, which included 67 Kansas publications. There were more than 2,700 total entries.

The Lawrence Times news team also won Best Use of Social Media for Divisions V, VI and VII, and Best Website in Division VII. 

We are eternally grateful to this incredible community and the people in it who give us the opportunity to tell their stories and be present for important moments in their lives, and in this town’s history.

Here’s the full list. (See descriptions of the categories here.)

First place:

Best Coverage of Diversity, All Divisions: Our entries in this category included work by Maya Hodison, equity reporter and engagement director, and Chansi Long, Lawrence Life reporter. Specifically, the coverage we submitted included work on KU students’ devastation after Indigenous ancestors’ remains were discovered on campus, the city-run camp for people experiencing homelessness, the Lawrence high school Unity Step Team, quilter Marla Jackson, and the Indian Child Welfare Act, or ICWA.

Best Use of Social Media, All Divisions: Follow LawrenceKSTimes on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Tiktok 

Best Digital Project, All Divisions: Who’s getting abortions in Kansas? Plus more FAQs ahead of the Aug. 2 vote, by Mackenzie Clark (click here)

Best Photo Illustration, All Divisions: ‘Incompatible with life’ diagnosis, Kansas abortion laws led Lawrence mom to seek health care outside state, by Molly Adams (click here)

Best Website, Division VII: LawrenceKSTimes.com 

Best Online Photo Series/Gallery, Division VII: Women march in Lawrence for reproductive rights, by Kylie Graham (click here)

Second place:

Youth Story, Division VII: Liberty Memorial Central students create unique multimedia poetry project with Lawrence Arts Center, by Tricia Masenthin (click here)

Spot news photography, Division VII: Train derails north of Lawrence; no injuries reported, by August Rudisell (click here)

Best Online Photo Series/Gallery, Division VII: Kids help rabbi press oil, make wicks for menorah candles at Lawrence library, by Chloe Anderson (click here) 

Third place: 

Photographer of the Year, All Divisions: Molly Adams

Best Photo Illustration, All Divisions: Native American adoptees resonate with cultural erasure as the Indian Child Welfare Act now faces legal opposition, by Molly Adams (click here)

Investigative story/series, Division VII: Brady-Giglio issues in Douglas County, by Mackenzie Clark (click here)

Series, Division VII: Abortion Stories, by Tricia Masenthin, Maya Hodison and Andrea Albright (click here) 

Youth Story, Division VII: Eudora teen with a passion for patient care earns $5,000 college scholarship, by Tricia Masenthin (click here)

Health Story, Division VII: ‘Incompatible with life’ diagnosis, Kansas abortion laws led Lawrence mom to seek health care outside state, by Tricia Masenthin (click here)

Column Writing, Division VII: Tom Harper (click here)

Photo Package, Division VII: Meet the first Mass Street Kitten Academy recruits of 2022, by Molly Adams (click here) 

The Lawrence Times last April, our first opportunity to enter, earned four Awards of Excellence from the KPA. In addition, the team in October earned the recognition of Best Non-Traditional News Organization from the American Journalism Online Awards from the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University. Reporter Conner Mitchell earned two recognitions for his 2021 series, “Who Killed Nick Rice?”, including an honorable mention from the AJO Awards in its category of “Best Use of Public Records” and the Burton W. Marvin Kansas News Enterprise Award, named for the former dean of KU’s William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications.

The Lawrence Times is the only locally owned and operated outlet covering the news in Lawrence and Douglas County, Kansas. We started publishing March 8, 2021. We are a very small operation entirely funded by community members who choose to purchase paid subscriptions and by local advertisers.

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