Carolina Public Press received awards for Investigative Reporting and General Excellence along the way to a total haul of 22 awards at the North Carolina Press Association annual banquet on Thursday in Cary.
While CPP has previously won numerous awards, this is the largest number in a single year for the nonprofit investigative news organization in its 14-year history.
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For the first time, the NCPA recognized news organizations of all sizes in a combined contest for cash-prize awards for investigative reporting. CPP placed second in this competition with Jane Winik Sartwell’s three-part investigative series Deserting Women, which appeared in March and explored the loss of women’s health services at rural North Carolina hospitals. Sartwell received a prize of $3,000 and CPP received $1,500.
CPP placed second in General Excellence in the NCPA’s awards division for Online publications.
These two special awards were announced during Thursday’s banquet. The other awards had been announced in July.
CPP swept the Online Division for News Enterprise reporting and Special Sections, while taking two out of three places for Breaking News, Spot Photography, Illustrations and Photo Essays.
CPP Executive Director Frank Taylor praised his team’s performance.
“The contest year began in April 2024 and ran through March 2025, yet none of our current staff members were with us last year until June and one didn’t join until August, so these honors are for an incredible body of work that they put together in a relatively short time,” said Taylor, who is also acting editor.
“When I look at all of these awards combined, they are spread almost evenly across our entire team, plus our freelancers. And this is a team that functions as a team. They applaud each other’s work and share ideas on a daily basis, even though we’re a 100% remote news organization with people spread across North Carolina.
“And don’t forget the shared staff recognition for our work in breaking news coverage. We won first place for covering Helene and second for covering Debby. This team worked so diligently, like a team, on short notice to assemble great round-up stories about these horrible events affecting our readers in each part of the state. Our ongoing coverage of Helene alone led to nine of these awards. I can’t say how happy I am for these great reporters, our photographer and our graphic artist to all receive this recognition.
The complete NCPA awards list for CPP in 2025 follows. Each is for the Online Division, except as noted:
General Excellence
- 2nd Place, Staff
Investigative Reporting (all divisions combined)
- 2nd place, Jane Winik Sartwell, Deserting Women
News Enterprise Reporting awards
- 1st Place, Jack Igelman, Out of the mud
- 2nd Place, Lucas Thomae, Mountain Island Lake flooding
- 3rd Place, Sarah Michels, Bunch of bull
Special Section awards
- 1st Place, CPP staff, Mountains Unbowed
- 2nd Place, CPP staff, Coastal Kindling
- 3rd Place, CPP staff, Deserting Women
Breaking News Coverage awards
- 1st Place, CPP staff, Helene’s first days
- 2nd Place, CPP staff, Tropical Storm Debby coverage
Feature Writing awards
- 1st Place, Jack Igelman, Voices after the storm
- 2nd Place, Lucas Thomae, Safe Babies Court
Spot photography awards
- 1st Place, Colby Rabon, Asheville inundated
- 2nd Place, Colby Rabon, Surviving Helene in Yancey and Mitchell counties
Illustration awards
- 1st Place, Mariano Santillan, Deserting Women
- 2nd Place, Mariano Santillan, Coastal Kindling
Photo essay awards
- 1st Place, Colby Rabon, Images of Yancey and Mitchell counties
- 3rd Place, Colby Rabon, Western NC battered but defiant
Profile feature
- 1st Place, Jane Winik Sartwell, From addiction to peer support
Ledes
- 2nd Place, Sarah Michels, Ledes by Sarah (“Ledes” is journalism slang for the introductory sentences of an article.)
City, county government reporting awards
- 2nd Place, Jane Winik Sartwell, Cities dumping dioxane
Headlines
- 3rd Place, Frank Taylor, Bunch of Bull and other headlines
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