News shares national press award

INDIANAPOLIS — The Society of Professional Journalists announced Tuesday that the Deseret Morning News and Utah Spanish-language newspaper Mundo Hispano have together earned second-place honors in national competition for their reporting on illegal immigration.

The SPJ's New America Award recognizes the newspapers for the seven-part series "Life in the Shadows," published in the Deseret Morning News last October. The weekly Mundo Hispano translated the stories into Spanish and featured them over a period of weeks under the Spanish title "Viviendo en la sombra."

SPJ's New America Award, now in its second year, honors collaborative public service journalism by ethnic and mainstream media working together to explore and expose an issue involving immigrant or ethnic communities.

First place went to WNYC Radio and The Center for New York City Affairs at The New School, in association with Minnesota Public Radio and Macollvie Jean-Francois, Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska and Arun Venugopal for "Feet in Two Worlds: Immigrants in a Global City." The one-hour broadcast, narrated by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt, told the stories of new immigrants from various nations and their adaptation to life in New York City.

The awards will be presented July 14 during the annual Sigma Delta Chi Awards banquet in Washington, D.C.

SPJ President David Carlson praised both prize-winning efforts, noting, "These works are excellent examples of cooperation between mainstream and ethnic media, exactly what this award is meant to promote."

The Utah series looked at illegal immigration's effect on the state's schools, health care, legal system and families. An estimated 85,000 undocumented immigrants live in Utah.

"We thought that at a time when the immigration debate was going on, it would be a good idea for us to come in with some cool, calm reporting on it," said John Hughes, editor and chief operating officer of the Deseret Morning News. "If you look at that series carefully, you would see that it is factual and dispassionate."

Deseret Morning News reporters Dennis Romboy, Lucinda Dillon Kinkead, Deborah Bulkeley, Lee Davidson and Jesse Hyde were at the core of the project, along with the paper's photographers, graphic designers and editors.

"I think people were surprised about how clear and in-depth it was," said Mundo Hispano managing editor Patricia Quijano, who helped translate the series.

Guy Baehr, chairman of SPJ's awards and honors committee, praised the teamwork represented by the honorees.

"We knew two things when we created this award," Baehr said. "First, that collaboration among news organizations of any kind is never easy, and, second, that collaboration between ethnic and mainstream news organizations can provide unique benefits for both ethnic and mainstream audiences."