Honors a single story or a series of explanatory reporting that provides insight and understanding of a significant and complex subject.

Jump to:

• Micro Division — Winner: California Health Report
• Small Division — Winner: Asheville Watchdog
• Medium Division — Winner: Flatwater Free Press
• Large Division — Winner: The Marshall Project, AL.com, The Post and Courier, Mississippi Today, The Frontier, The Guardian

---

Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism – Micro division

California Health Report

Families caring for children with disabilities by Claudia Boyd-Barrett, Hannah Hough

It’s a “minefield” for families of children with complex medical needs and disabilities to access and use state programs meant to support them. California Health Report highlighted a family’s struggle to navigate that system, telling what one judge described as “well-reported and powerfully written.”

Read the Winning Work

‘She’s Taught Me So Much About What Real Courage Is:’ A Window into the Life of a Family

Caring for a Child with Intensive Medical Needs

How to Make it Easier for Kids with Disabilities to Get Care

Finalists

• Boulder Reporting Lab, Hidden hazard: Boulder’s million-ton coal ash problem has no local watchdog
• Conecta Arizona, Voto extranjero — Mexicanos se preparan para una elección histórica en Arizona, Maritza L. Félix, Gustavo Guirado, Julio Cisneros, Liliana López Ruelas, Carlos Bujanda, Daniel Robles
• Feet in 2 Worlds, Home, Interrupted, Iggy Monda, Quincy Surasmith, Jocelyn Gonzales, John Rudolph, Mia Warren, Greta Díaz González Vázquez, Emmy Brett, Allison Salerno, Aria Young, Wendy Wei, Anja Nilsson, Shreya Agrawal
• Sierra Nevada Ally, What is Nevada’s Climate Strategy? There isn’t one, Noah Glick
• Voices of Monterey Bay, ROAD ATLAS: Women healing trauma in the nomad West

---

Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism – Small division

Asheville Watchdog

Selling Asheville

Asheville, North Carolina has transformed from a “downtown in decline” to a destination that draws 12.5 million tourists a year — a financial boon with expensive challenges for some residents. Asheville Watchdog investigated the city’s ascent to a tourist destination and related growing pains such as the increase of tourism jobs that don’t pay enough for local workers to live comfortably in the city, high-dollar paydays for social media influencers, and rising housing costs. “The series raises important questions about the sustainability of an economy increasingly dependent on tourism,” one judge said.

Read the Winning Work

Asheville tourism became a $3 billion-a-year behemoth, but at what cost?

Tourism tax money buys massages, $250 shirts, dinners costing thousands

TDA’s promotion machine contributes to influx of transplants, rising housing costs

Local leaders: Reduce Buncombe’s tourism marketing budget

Finalists

• Bolts, Your guides to state supreme courts, Quinn Yeargain, Daniel Nichanian
• Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism (CCIJ), Gender-based Violence by State Actors in Uganda and Zimbabwe
• Cicero Independiente, MuckRock, Bringing attention to environmental risks facing majority Latinx community
• Mission Local, BigMoneySF: The network bankrolling San Francisco elections
• The Appeal, Locked In, Priced Out, Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg, Ethan Corey
• The Highlands Current, Talking Trash, Brian PJ Cronin
• The Lund Report, University of Oregon Catalyst Journalism Project, Oregon Public Broadcasting, Unsupported: Addiction prevention in Oregon classrooms, Emily Green, Elizabeth Yost, Lillian Mongeau Hughes

---

Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism – Medium division

Flatwater Free Press

Who’s Buying Nebraska? by Yanqi Xu, Destiny Herbers

Multinational corporations, out-of-state corporate farms, and far-away investors are scooping up Nebraska farmland — and driving up the average cost per acre. Flatwater Free Press examined how buyers, including billionaires like Bill Gates and Ted Turner, spent nearly $250 million in the past five years to own a piece of the state’s farmland, the cost of which has jumped 41% since 2018. The series’ final story was part of a collaboration with INN’s Rural News Network.

Read the Winning Work

Who’s Buying Nebraska? Corporations, investors grabbing giant chunks of Nebraska farmland

Quick hit: Who’s Buying Nebraska?

Who’s Buying Nebraska? After shopping spree, Mormon church is top land purchaser

Who’s Buying Nebraska? Foreign companies deeply involved in farmland — but not how you think.

Spilling Bill’s Beans: Tech billionaire spent $113 million on Nebraska farmland

Water’s worth: It sits beneath Nebraska’s farmland and has serious value. But who owns it?

Facebook, Google data centers among latest developments transforming Nebraska farmland

Three Nebraska tribes are done losing land. Now they’re buying.

Finalists

• Food & Environment Reporting Network, WWNO’s Sea Change Podcast, Redfish Blues, Boyce Upholt
• New York Focus, Explanatory Reporting on New York Climate Action, Colin Kinniburgh, Julia Rock, Sam Mellins
• The Imprint, Fighting for Kin, Sara Tiano
• Wisconsin Watch, Hogtied, Bennet Goldstein, Jim Malewitz

---

Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism – Large division

The Marshall Project, AL.com, The Post and Courier, Mississippi Today, The Frontier, The Guardian

Prosecuting pregnancy

In several states — including Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina — law enforcement and prosecutors are using the concept of “fetal personhood” to criminalize people who give birth and use drugs during their pregnancy. That happens even if the person delivers a healthy baby. This reporting project is “incredibly important journalism” with “impeccable reporting,” a judge said.

Read the Winning Work

These States Are Using Fetal Personhood to Put Women Behind Bars

How One Alabama County Declared War on Pregnant Women Who Use Drugs

Put to the test: Pregnant women in SC face severe consequences for using drugs

They Were Prosecuted for Using Drugs While Pregnant. But It May Not Have Been a Crime

This Woman was Sentenced for Manslaughter for a Stillbirth

Alabama woman sues, claims she was forced to give birth in jailhouse shower

What the End of Roe Looks Like in Real Time

Medical Marijuana Is Legal, But Oklahoma Is Charging Women for Using It While Pregnant

Finalists

• Block Club Chicago and Chalkbeat, Lost In Translation: Migrant Kids Struggle In Segregated Chicago Schools, Mina Bloom, Reema Amin
• Capital B, The New Great Migration, Adam Mahoney
• Retro Report and WORLD Channel, Generations Stolen
• The Texas Tribune, Righting the Rule of Law, Eleanor Klibanoff
• The Texas Tribune, ProPublica, FRONTLINE (PBS), Unprepared