The San Francisco Chronicle’s coverage of the 2020 Northern California wildfire siege won the prestigious Online Journalism Award for breaking news, marking the newsroom’s third straight win in the category.
The annual Online News Association competition honors the best in digital journalism. Launched in 2000, the awards highlight innovation from major media, independent newsrooms and international publications, with a focus on cutting-edge work that employs new technology.
The 2021 award reflects work from teams across the newsroom, including news and features reporters, editors, photographers, developers, producers, designers, copy editors and audio storytellers. The entry included a story on the long battle against the blazes, a visual essay from photographers working within feet of the flames, the deeply reported “A Lightning Fire, A Thunderous Path” enterprise project, and interactive features including the California Wildfire Tracker.
The newsroom was named a finalist in three other categories at the ONA’s annual ceremony:
– Audio Storytelling, Limited Series for “The Doodler” podcast about the unsolved case of a serial killer targeting gay men in 1970s San Francisco, narrated by staff writer Kevin Fagan and produced in partnership with Neon Hum Media and Ugly Duckling Films.
– Explanatory Reporting for “Delta on the Edge,” a series of interactive stories about the flow of water in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and who controls it by reporter Kurtis Alexander with photographers Santiago Mejia and Carlos Avila Gonzalez, graphic artist John Blanchard, and design and development by Audrey DeBruine and Danielle Mollette-Parks.
– Feature Story for “The Evidence Burns Away,” about the arsonist behind a devastating 2016 wildfire and the extraordinary efforts to catch him by former staff writer Lizzie Johnson with images by photographer Gabrielle Lurie, illustrations by John Blanchard and design and development by Paula Friedrich.
The Chronicle’s digital journalism has been honored by ONA in recent years.
In 2020, The Chronicle won the top award for a local newsroom, General Excellence in Online Journalism, as well as in the Breaking News category for coverage of the Kincade Fire and PG&E power shut-offs in the North Bay. The newsroom was also a finalist in the Feature category for “The Fisherman’s Secret” and in the Excellence and Innovation in Visual Storytelling category for “One Day, One City, No Relief,” a part of the annual S.F. Homeless Project.
In 2019, The Chronicle won in the Breaking News category for coverage of the Camp Fire in Butte County.
About The San Francisco Chronicle
The San Francisco Chronicle (www.sfchronicle.com) is the largest newspaper in Northern California and the second largest on the West Coast. Acquired by the Hearst Corporation in 2000, The San Francisco Chronicle was founded in 1865 by Charles and Michael de Young and has been awarded six Pulitzer Prizes for journalistic excellence. The staff won ONA Online Journalism Awards for General Excellence in 2020 and for Breaking News coverage in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Follow us on Twitter at @SFChronicle.
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