Missouri Press Awards Inaugural A-Mark Prize for Investigative Journalism

PROTECTED CONTENT

If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.

Username

Password

Login

Lost your password?

Username and Password Help

Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.

Email

Submit

← Back

Missouri Press Association partnered this year with the A-Mark Foundation to award a total of $15,000 to Missouri journalists and news organizations. The A-Mark Foundation is a nonpartisan nonprofit founded in 1997 and dedicated to supporting and encouraging journalism and investigative reporting.

Investigative journalists give their audience insight into government, businesses and even individuals that might not otherwise be accountable to the average citizen. In many cases, the subjects of these reports often wish the topics remain undisclosed to the public.

The winners of Missouri’s A-Mark Prize for Investigation Journalism showed excellence in their fact-finding, exhibiting the exceptional skill and effort required to develop information into news reports on topics that might otherwise have gone unknown to their wider audience.

A total of 16 A-Mark entries were received, showcasing reporting from every corner of Missouri and by newsrooms of every size, from single staff newspapers to multi-journalist teams.

Receiving the third-place prize was Echo Menges and the Edina Sentinel for reporting on the Sunshine Law trial Tobler v. Scotland County Hospital. Menges’ reporting represents the kind of high-impact, public accountability journalism that defines investigative reporting. This entry exposed secret meetings, procedural violations, and efforts to suppress media access to a public courtroom. It was produced entirely by Menges and reflects her initiative, persistence and deep commitment to open government.

The second place A-Mark Prize winner is KMOV’s team of investigative reporter Lauren Trager, producer Emily Beck, and photojournalists Noah Brooks and Mark Hadler. Their series, Inspectors Under Inspection, exemplifies investigative reporting’s core mission to expose wrongdoing, hold the powerful accountable and give a voice to those blindsided by systemic failure. The relentless, detail-oriented reporting uncovered what some experts called a deeply troubling misuse of millions in pandemic-relief dollars by the City of St. Louis.

First place for the A-Mark Prize for Investigative Journalism was presented to Katie Moore, Glenn E. Rice and Bill Lukitsch with The Kansas City Star, who after a police chase killed two bystanders embarked on a yearlong investigation into how police agencies handle pursuits.

Reporters filed more than 140 public records requests with over 70 area agencies, gathering investigative case files, dashboard camera recordings and legal settlements. They also spoke with more than 60 people, including innocent bystanders who were injured in police chases, families of victims killed in pursuits, police officials, attorneys, politicians and academics who have been studying the topic for decades.

The reporters also found that cities across the Kansas City metro area have paid millions of dollars to settle lawsuits filed by the families of innocent people killed or hurt in police chase crashes. The reporting has also prompted elected officials to call for reviews of police pursuit policies and procedures.

The A-Mark Prize for Investigative Reporting was open to all news media organizations based in Missouri and their staff members, including newspapers, broadcast outlets and digital-only platforms. Freelance journalists based in Missouri whose reporting is published or aired by Missouri news media organizations were also eligible to enter.

Awards were presented Saturday, Sept. 13, during Missouri Press Association’s 159th Annual Convention and Tradeshow in Wildwood, Mo.