Berkeley Scanner wins national award for online local news

The Berkeley Scanner has won a 2024 National Headliner Award for its online local news reporting.

"Community and local news websites are creating a model for the future of journalism, and The Berkeley Scanner is defining that future with fast-paced, engaging and energetic coverage of public safety that has a strong voice and edge and a commitment to on-the-scene, shoe-leather reporting," the judges said.

"With enterprise reporting, breaking news and community engagement (and producing 30 to 40 stories a month), founder Emilie Raguso is pioneering a new era of journalism with a commitment to the longstanding values that make journalism so essential to our lives."

The Scanner took first place in the category for online local news.

The Scanner submitted its extensive coverage of Alameda County DA Pamela Price, as well as reporting on a fatal police shooting on Grayson Street, and the discovery of skeletal remains at UC Berkeley for consideration by the judges.

"Even though The Scanner is a one-person operation, we regularly punch above our weight by writing stories with detail and nuance," Scanner founder Emilie Raguso told the judges earlier this year. "The stories I am submitting … highlight what makes The Scanner’s coverage special. I bring my expertise and deep sources, developed over a decade of building community trust and relationships, to every in-depth article I tackle."

Local news sites Red Bank Green of New Jersey and BridgeDetroit took second and third place in the online community/local news category.

The National Headliner Awards is "one of the oldest and largest annual contests recognizing journalistic merit in the communications industry."

The contest was founded by the Press Club of Atlantic City in 1934.

The Honolulu Civil Beat, Dallas Morning News, Reuters and The Marshall Project, along with reporters at Bloomberg, Mashable, CNBC and The Oregonian were among those honored with first-place wins in other online news categories of the 2024 National Headliner Awards.

"Many journalists have capped long and distinguished careers with a National Headliner Award, and each year the judges have recognized exceptional talents that might otherwise have gone unnoticed," contest organizers wrote.

Since its launch in September 2022, The Berkeley Scanner has been a finalist for New LION Business of the Year (2023) and won a "Truth to Power" press freedom award from SPJ NorCal (2024).

The Berkeley Scanner has nearly 1,300 paying members who support its work and averages 250,000 monthly pageviews.