Deseret News, KSL reporter win Cronkite award

SALT LAKE CITY — Deseret News political reporter Lisa Riley Roche and KSL-TV reporter John Daley have been awarded a Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism.

The Special Commendation for Investigative Journalism is for their collaboration in a series of stories that connected campaign contributions to state contracts. The series was about an unusually high-priced $13 million settlement the Utah Department of Transportation paid to a losing bidder on the I-15 CORE project, while the winning bidder was a contributor to Gov. Gary Herbert's re-election campaign.

The announcement by the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism also noted that judges were impressed by the collaboration between the television and newspaper reporters “which extends the reach of each of the news organizations.”

Roche and Daley work in the Deseret Media Companies' News Division, which is an integrated newsroom providing content for the online, broadcast and print media of KSL and the Deseret News. Their stories were published in the Deseret News, deseretnews.com, ksl.com and broadcast on KSL-TV and radio.