The Arizona Capitol Times won 18 awards in the Arizona Newspaper Association 2018 Better Newspapers Contest, including placing first place in its division for general excellence, reporting and news writing excellence and community services-journalistic achievement.
Rachel Leingang, who covered the governor’s beat for the Arizona Capitol Times, also won as ANA 2018 Journalist of the Year. Leingang now covers higher education for the Arizona Republic.
Katie Campbell, who anchors the Arizona Capitol Times podcast, The Breakdown, won first place in multimedia storytelling.
Both Campbell and Leingang also earned top recognition for their work exposing sexual harassment at the state Capitol, sharing first place honors in investigative journalism.
Senate Reporter Ben Giles won two first place awards in the category of news and enterprise reporting.
Former House Reporter Paulina Pineda, who is now with the Arizona Republic, won second place in news reporting.
General Excellence – 1st Place
Reporting & Newswriting Excellence – 1st Place
Departmental News & Copywriting Excellence – 1st Place
Page Design Excellence – 1st Place
Best Use Of Photography – 1st Place
Community Service/Journalistic Achievement – 1st Place
Special Section – 3rd Place
Newspaper Website – 1st Place
Journalist of the Year – Rachel Leingang
Best Headline – 3rd Place, Gary Grado, for “No Joke,” which captures in two words the Legislature’s historic vote to oust a legislator accused of sexually harassing women at the Capitol
Best News Story – 1st Place, Ben Giles, for his piece on a controversial researcher hired to update a prison population study; 2nd Place, Paulina Pineda, for her article on lawmakers’ increasing number of complaints against cities
Best Sustained Coverage or Series – 2nd Place, Rachel Leingang, for her piece on K-12 letter grades; 3rd Place, Katie Campbell, for her coverage of #REDforED
Investigative Reporting – 1st Place, Katie Campbell and Rachel Leingang, for their investigation into sexual harassment in the state Capitol
Enterprise Reporting – 1st Place Ben Giles, for his piece looking into swing districts; 2nd Place, Rachel Leingang, for her work looking into Gov. Doug Ducey’s record on pardons
Best Multimedia Storytelling – 1st Place, Katie Campbell, for her work on Arizona Capitol Times podcast, The Breakdown