Associated Press writers take 2024 Shaufler Prize top honors

Investigative reporting examining crops and goods produced by prisoners earned Robin McDowell and Margie Mason first place in the 2024 Shaufler Prize in Journalism. 

The Associated Press story, “Prison to Plate,” resulted in companies like Cargill, Trader Joe’s and McDonald’s cutting ties with state correctional departments or third-party suppliers that relied on a supply chain with striking similarities to slave labor on plantations.

“This impactful story weaves together compelling personal narratives with data and history to engage readers and drive change,” said Dr. Battinto Batts Jr., dean of the Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. “Robin and Margie deserve the highest praise for this important journalism.” 

The Shaufler Prize recognizes America’s best journalism advancing the understanding of stories and issues related to underserved communities. It is granted by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Each year the contest distributes $20,000 in prizes.

The second place winner, “The Year After a Denied Abortion,” is a photo essay by photographer Stacy Kranitz and reporter Kavitha Surana, produced for ProPublica, which follows a woman and her family for a year after she was denied an abortion for a life-threatening pregnancy in Tennessee. 

Third place goes to “Traileres, trampa para migrantes’ (‘Cargo trucks: a trap for migrants), produced by a cross-border reporting collaboration led by Noticias Telemundo and the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP), with the International consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Bellingcat and local media outlets Pie de Página, Chiapas Paralelo and En un 2×3 Tamaulipas, in Mexico, Plaza Pública in Guatemala and Contracorriente in Honduras. Their stories are the result of a 7-month examination that revealed the dangerous human smuggling trade through Mexico.

The judges also awarded an honorable mention to “Eroding Indigenous Sovereignty,” by Ottavia Spaggiari, a freelance journalist who published her work in The Margin. Her story examined climate threats facing tribal nations that have not been federally recognized.

The student category winner,  “The Newest New Yorkers,” is a project by NYCity News Service at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York that examines how 130,000 asylum seekers in the city navigate hurdles and build community.

Now in its fourth year, the Shaufler Prize, established by Paul B. Anderson, the principal and CEO of Workhouse Media in Seattle, Washington, honors Ed Shaufler, who cared deeply about promoting understanding of underrepresented people.

“The journalism we are recognizing this year is of extraordinary quality, with powerful storytelling that carries the potential to drive change and improve lives,”  Anderson said. “I continue to be gratified that we honor Ed’s spirit and the principles he espoused.” 

An awards ceremony at the Cronkite School on March 24 will recognize the Shaufler Prize winners and will be streamed live on YouTube.

Judges for the 2024 Shaufler Prize

Jesus Ayala: Jesus Ayala is an experienced broadcast journalist, primarily with ABC News, who has won four national Emmys and seven Edward R. Murrow awards. He is a professor of broadcast journalism and multimedia at California State University, Fullerton.

Tom Davidson: Tom Davidson is a media executive, journalist and educator, who has worked at the intersection of revenue, content and digital transformation for public and commercial media organizations, including PBS and Gannett. He is a professor of practice in entrepreneurship and innovation at the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Pennsylvania State University.

Hannah Drier: Hannah Dreier is a New York Times reporter who has previously worked at The Washington Post and The Associated Press. She is the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes. Her exposé on child labor, ‘Alone and Exploited,’ was a winner of the 2023 Shaufler Prize.

Rommel H. Ojeda: Rommel H. Ojeda is a journalist and filmmaker based in New York City and a senior reporter for Documented. His work focuses on immigration and the issues affecting New York’s Latinx community, and he is a winner of the 2023 Shaufler Prize.

Brett Pulley: Brett Pulley is the Atlanta Bureau Chief for Bloomberg, and he previously served as dean of the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications at Hampton University in Virginia. Pulley has covered the media, entertainment and other industries, and he was formerly a senior editor at Forbes Magazine, a national correspondent at The New York Times and a reporter at The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of “Billion Dollar BET: Robert Johnson and the Inside Story of Black Entertainment Television.”

Chelsea Reynolds, Ph.D.: Chelsea Reynolds is a founding center director and associate professor at the Cronkite School. Her research examines the relationships between mass media and difference, focusing on sexual communication, LGBTQ+ communities and internet censorship. Prior to entering academia, she worked in the magazine industry.

Liana Simstrom: Liana Simstrom is a supervising senior producer on the Enterprise Storytelling Unit at NPR.he supports narrative longform podcasts including Embedded and The Sunday Story from Up First.

Miranda Spivack: Miranda Spivack is veteran reporter and editor who specializes in stories about government accountability and secrecy, and urban development. Miranda’s book, Backroom Deals in Our Backyards, about the rise in secret deal-making between local governments and corporations and how this threatens health, safety and democracy, will be published in May 2025.