Wausau Pilot & Review

The Wausau Pilot team earned three awards including one first-place finish Friday in Wisconsin’s premiere press contest.

The Milwaukee Press Club, North America’s oldest continuously operating press organization, announced winners Friday for the organization’s annual Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism contest.

Shereen Siewert’s coverage of PFAS issues in Wausau including the city’s cost recovery litigation earned the gold, the top prize, in the best coverage of a single news story or topic category. Hanna Ritvo of PBS Wisconsin took home the silver award for coverage of the national battle over access to gender-affirming care for children, while Robert Chappell and Omar Waheed of Madison365 and Blueprint365 earned a bronze for reporting on legislative pressures at the University of Wisconsin related to diversity initiatives.

Siewert’s reporting on cancer risks at Riverside Park in Wausau also earned a bronze for best explanatory story or series. Siewert and Wausau Pilot Marketing Director Christina Kimball also earned a bronze award in the business category for their collaboration on a spotlight series that shares stories of locally-owned and operated businesses.

This year’s contest drew nearly 900 entries from throughout Wisconsin and was based on coverage through 2023.

Wausau Pilot, a nonprofit newspaper founded in 2017, has earned multiple state and national accolades for its local reporting including more than a dozen first-place finishes. Past awards have been bestowed by the Wisconsin Newspaper Association and from LION, an organization that supports a network of hundreds of publishers nationwide. This is the first year that Wausau Pilot has competed in the Milwaukee Press Club contest.

The competition was judged by professional journalists from press clubs throughout the U.S., including statewide clubs in Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Western Pennsylvania and Southeast Texas and metro-area clubs in Atlanta, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Orange County, San Diego, San Francisco and Syracuse.