Center wins four Eppy awards

Introduction

The Center for Public Integrity was honored today with four 2014 EPPY awards from Editor & Publisher. The winning entries, and the categories:

• Best News Website with under 1 million unique monthly visitors for www.publicintegrity.org;
• Best Investigative/Enterprise Feature on a Website for Big Oil, Bad Air: Fracking the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas (Tie with Post and Courier);
• Best Online Infographics on a Website for China Leaks: Who Uses Offshore Tax Havens, produced by The Center’s Chris Zubak-Skees with the Center’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists;
• Best News/Political Blog with under 1 million unique monthly visitors for Consider the Source and Primary Source, the Center’s money and politics investigative project.

For the best Investigative/Enterprise Feature, Big Oil, Bad Air: Fracking the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas, the Center partnered with InsideClimate News and The Weather Channel. The immersive digital experience of the investigation, produced by Center Engagement Editor Sarah Whitmire via the Shorthand application, used elegant prose, photos, video, and infographics to truly convey the breadth of what residents of the Eagle Ford Shale region in South Texas experience in their own backyards. The area is in the midst of an oil and gas drilling boom, and the investigation raised questions regarding the health risks of emissions of dangerous chemicals in the area, and the lack of oversight by state regulators.

The Center’s award-winning online infographic, China Leaks: Who Uses Offshore Tax Havens, was developed — in six different languages — by News Developer Chris Zubak-Skees. His work deftly illustrated exactly who among China’s elite had connections to offshore companies, and why those people mattered. The series was part of the larger series Secrecy for Sale: Inside the Global Offshore Money Maze by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a project of the Center. The effort represented one of the largest journalistic collaborations in the world, involving more than 110 journalists in 58 countries.

Consider the Source and Primary Source were recognized for their comprehensive coverage of the rapidly changing world of money in politics. The 2014 elections are the most expensive and least transparent midterm campaigns of the modern era, and these projects have illuminated the shadowy political organizations flourishing in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling.

Read more about the 2014 Eppy Awards winners at Editor & Publisher.

Congratulations to all of the winners.