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August 27, 2023

ONA announces winners in the 2023 Online Journalism Awards

Winners across 23 categories include local organizations, nonprofit news outlets, international media and wide-ranging collaborations

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The Online News Association (ONA) is thrilled to celebrate the winners in the 2023 Online Journalism Awards, the only comprehensive set of journalism prizes honoring excellence and digital innovation around the world.

Hewlett Foundation LogoWinners across 23 categories were announced on Aug. 17 during a virtual celebration hosted by Imaeyen Ibanga, Presenter, Documentarian and Senior Producer at AJ+, and LaSharah Bunting, CEO and Executive Director at ONA, and on Aug. 26 at the 2023 Online Journalism Awards Ceremony in Philadelphia, hosted by NPR’s Gene Demby and presented with support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

The winning projects include exceptional journalism by local outlets such as LAist, the Miami Herald, GBH News and Borderless Magazine; nonprofit news organizations including Iowa Public Radio, Radio Free Asia and The 19th; leading international media such as LA NACION and impressive collaborations like Story Killers and The Great Salt Lake Collaborative, each of which involved over a dozen organizations. By showcasing projects that stand out for their storytelling and delivery as well as impact on communities, the OJAs are elevating the benchmark for excellence in a dynamic industry.

“From experimental storytelling to detailed data projects and gripping 3D animation, this year’s winners showcase the best of the best,” said Angela Pacienza, Chair of ONA’s Awards and Recognition Committee and Executive Editor at The Globe and Mail. “The collected works display incredible range, creative thinking and A+ journalistic skill, showing an industry that continues to evolve and innovate to tell important, thought-provoking stories that help us understand our changing world. In reviewing the winners, judges remarked on the wide range of digital storytelling techniques applied, allowing readers to digest complex issues more easily.”

Five categories in the 2023 OJAs come with prize money totaling $52,000, with support from 3M, the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, McKinsey Publishing and SmartNews. These awards honor science reporting, community-centered journalism, investigative data journalism, climate change reporting and general excellence.

Company logos for 3M, the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, McKinsey Publishing and SmartNews.

The Online Journalism Awards also recognized individuals who have made outstanding contributions to ONA and journalism. This year’s special awards honorees include:

  • Siri Carpenter, Co-founder and Editor-in-chief of The Open Notebook, honored with the ONA Community Award
  • Finbarr O’Reilly, Independent visual journalist and author, honored with the James Foley Award for Conflict Reporting
  • Jean Friedman-Rudovsky and Cassie Haynes, Co-founders of Resolve Philly, honored with the Impact Award
  • Digital news pioneer Mandy Jenkins, posthumously honored with the Rich Jaroslovsky Founder Award.

2023 OJAs winners

Explore the full list of 2023 Online Journalism Awards finalists and winners in 23 categories that were open for submissions:

General Excellence in Online Journalism, Large Newsroom

  • The Washington Post

General Excellence in Online Journalism, Medium Newsroom

  • The Marshall Project

General Excellence in Online Journalism, Small Newsroom

  • Honolulu Civil Beat

General Excellence in Online Journalism, Micro Newsroom

  • The Pudding

3M Truth in Science Award, Large Newsroom

  • State of Wolves, Star Tribune

3M Truth in Science Award, Small/Medium Newsroom

  • Roots of an Outbreak, ProPublica

Breaking News, Large Newsroom

  • Leaked Racist Tape Upends L.A. Politics, Los Angeles Times

Breaking News, Small/Medium Newsroom

  • Unpacking the impact of Dobbs, The 19th

Digital Video Storytelling, Long Form, Large Newsroom

  • Wy-Kan-Ush-Pum (Salmon People): A Native Fishing Family’s Fight to Preserve a Way of Life, ProPublica, Oregon Public Broadcasting

Digital Video Storytelling, Long Form, Small/Medium Newsroom

  • What New Zealand Can Teach us About Reparations, Vox Media

Digital Video Storytelling, Medium Form, Large Newsroom

  • How Russia is Smuggling Ukrainian Grain to Pay for Putin’s War, Associated Press and FRONTLINE

Digital Video Storytelling, Medium Form, Small/Medium Newsroom

  • Videos Show NYPD Chiefs Intervened Before Voiding of Ex-Cop’s Gun Arrest, THE CITY

Digital Video Storytelling, Short Form, Large Newsroom

  • ‘I Heard Them Screaming:’ Witness Says Migrants Were Left to Die in Mexico Fire, The New York Times

Digital Video Storytelling, Short Form, Small/Medium Newsroom

  • The Young People Who “Ran” out of China, Are Their Dreams Coming True?, 歪脑 | WHYNOT by Radio Free Asia

Digital Video Storytelling, Series, Large Newsroom

  • Risky Business, Insider, Inc.

Digital Video Storytelling, Series, Small/Medium Newsroom

  • A Uranium Ghost Town in the Making Video Series, ProPublica

Excellence and Innovation in Visual Digital Storytelling, Large Newsroom

  • AR-15: The Blast Effect, The Washington Post

Excellence and Innovation in Visual Digital Storytelling, Medium Newsroom

  • The Banality of Brutality: 33 days under siege in Block 17, Bucha, Ukraine, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project

Excellence and Innovation in Visual Digital Storytelling, Small Newsroom

  • The Pudding’s Portfolio, The Pudding

Excellence in Audio Digital Storytelling, Current Affairs

  • Into America: Ongoing Current Affairs Reporting on Black America, MSNBC

Excellence in Audio Digital Storytelling, Limited Series

  • The Outlaw Ocean Podcast, The Outlaw Ocean Project

Excellence in Audio Digital Storytelling, Ongoing Series

  • How to LA, Southern California Public Radio

Excellence in Audio Digital Storytelling, Use of Audio Storytelling

  • The search for the perfect sound, The Washington Post

Excellence in Collaboration and Partnerships (Two winners)

  • Great Salt Lake Collaborative, The Salt Lake Tribune, FOX 13 News Salt Lake City, Deseret News, KSL-TV, KSL NewsRadio, KSL.com, Standard-Examiner, KUER, Utah Public Radio, KRCL, Great Salt Lake Institute at Westminster College, Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water & Air at Utah State University, Salt Lake Community College Community Writing Center, Salt Lake Community College Geosciences Department, Utah Film Center, Utah Humanities
  • Story Killers, Forbidden Stories, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Haaretz, Le Monde, Radio France, Le Soir, RTS, Tamedia, Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, El Pais, Armando.info, Knack, Der Standard, ZDF, Investigative Reporting Project Italy (IRPI), Bird, El Espectador, Folha de Sao Paulo, Proceso

Excellence in Immersive and Emerging Technology Storytelling

  • The Chain of Failures That Left 17 Dead in a Bronx Apartment Fire, The New York Times

Excellence in Newsletters, Portfolio

  • Iowa Public Radio

Excellence in Newsletters, Single Newsletter

  • Arepita, Arepita

Excellence in Social Justice Reporting, Portfolio

  • Trafficking, Inc., GBH News

Excellence in Social Justice Reporting, Single Story

  • Adrift, Associated Press

Excellence in Social Media Engagement, Large Newsroom

  • How to explain inflation to the audience (without boring them), LA NACION

Excellence in Social Media Engagement, Medium Newsroom

  • National Geographic TikTok, National Geographic

Excellence in Social Media Engagement, Small Newsroom

  • Austin’s 2023 Ice Storm, KUT

Excellence in Technology Reporting, Large Newsroom

  • The Post-Roe Information Crisis, Bloomberg News

Excellence in Technology Reporting, Small/Medium Newsroom

  • Still Loading, The Markup

Explanatory Reporting, Large Newsroom

  • American Icon, The Washington Post

Explanatory Reporting, Medium Newsroom

  • Made in Miami: The assassination of Haiti’s Jovenel Moise, Miami Herald

Explanatory Reporting, Small Newsroom

  • Deforestation Inc., International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

Feature, Large Newsroom

  • Kate Price remembers something terrible, The Boston Globe

Feature, Medium Newsroom

  • The Mercy Workers, The Marshall Project

Feature, Small Newsroom

  • No Way to Live, Capital & Main

Gather Award in Community-Centered Journalism, Overall Excellence, Medium/Large Newsroom

  • Collecting the Receipts Communities Can Use, ProPublica, Oregon Public Broadcasting, NBC News

Gather Award in Community-Centered Journalism, Overall Excellence, Micro/Small Newsroom

  • How Borderless used field canvassers to reach Spanish speakers, Borderless Magazine

Knight Award for Public Service

  • Where are they? What happened to the 5000 missing women that the State does not know how to look for?, LA NACION

Online Commentary, Personal Narrative

  • Generation Connie, The New York Times

Online Commentary, Package of Columns

  • Columnist Jeneé Osterheldt, The Boston Globe

Sports, Health and Wellness, Large Newsroom

  • Black Out, The Washington Post

Sports, Health and Wellness, Small/Medium Newsroom

  • Safer Sidelines, The Courier Journal

Student Journalism Award, Student Portfolio

  • Pig Human Transplants and the March to Immortality, Harvard University

Student Journalism Award, Student Team Portfolio

  • WATERSHED, The University of Florida

The Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award, Large Newsroom

  • Nightmare in Nigeria, Reuters

The Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award, Medium Newsroom

  • Words of Conviction: Tracing a Junk Science Through the Justice System, ProPublica

The Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award, Small Newsroom

  • Mega Billions, Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland

Topical Reporting: Climate Change

  • Climate, migration and the far-right: How the ripples of climate change are radiating outward, NPR

Topical Reporting: Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Identity, Large Newsroom

  • Deaths in the Family, Insider, Inc.

Topical Reporting: Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Identity, Medium Newsroom

  • K-Pop Dreaming, Southern California Public Radio

Topical Reporting: Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Identity, Small Newsroom

  • Long Division: The Persistence of Race Science, Undark

University of Florida Award in Investigative Data Journalism, Large Newsroom

  • Black Out, The Washington Post

University of Florida Award in Investigative Data Journalism, Small/Medium Newsroom

  • Roots of an Outbreak, ProPublica

Launched in 2000, the Online Journalism Awards are the only comprehensive set of journalism prizes honoring excellence in digital journalism, focusing on independent, community, nonprofit, major media and international news sites.

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