South Dakota Searchlight wins 12 awards in annual contest
Apr 26, 2025 | 7:48 pm ET
Description
The staff of South Dakota Searchlight, from left: Senior Reporter John Hult, reporters Joshua Haiar and Makenzie Huber, and Editor-in-Chief Seth Tupper.
South Dakota Searchlight won 12 awards, including seven for first place, in the South Dakota NewsMedia Association’s annual Better NewsMedia Contest.
The association consists of more than 100 members, including newspapers and digital news outlets. Awards for work published in 2024 were announced Saturday during the association’s 142nd annual convention in Aberdeen.
Searchlight competes in Division 3, for media outlets in cities with a population greater than 15,000. The contest’s other two divisions are for outlets in cities with populations less than 3,000, or between 3,000 and 15,000.
Members of the Louisiana Press Association judged the contest entries. A complete list of results is available on the SDNA website.
Searchlight’s awards
- First place, Best News Series, John Hult: Examining Noem’s cartel claims.
- First place, Best Feature Series, Makenzie Huber: ‘We can’t exist without child care’: Rural towns use state funding to open local centers; Cities and schools see new opportunities to partner on child care with state grants; Boot camps, business accelerators: Rapid City, Sioux Falls get creative with child care grants.
- First place, Best Local Column, Kevin Woster: Letting go is difficult after going afield with a good dog; The unsaid words that matter most in Noem’s feud with tribes; Democracy and discomfort: Mount Rushmore’s potent mix.
- First place, Best Special Issue, staff: 2024 Voter Guide.
- First place, Best Local Government Story, Seth Tupper: McCook Lake residents say their homes were sacrificed, and they want a new flood plan.
- First place, Best Editorial Writing, Seth Tupper: Now that Noem knows what’s in her own book, she should tell us how it got there; South Dakota was tardy with a gold tax. Can it afford to sleep on lithium?; South Dakota doesn’t have to rob Peter to build a prison.
- First place, Public Service, Seth Tupper: Helping to rescue the Gossage Memorial.
- Second place, Best Headline Writing, Seth Tupper: Q&A: The long road to ‘Short Walk,’ a new podcast on the Ravnsborg accident and impeachment; South Dakota doesn’t have to rob Peter to build a prison; It’s a done doula: South Dakota Medicaid to cover childbirth support starting in 2025; Noem’s dog killing was bad, but to really understand her, consider the goat; Does Kristi Noem believe in Freedom, or just freedom? The scandalous truth.
- Third place, General Excellence, staff: Searchlight Daily newsletter edition of Oct. 11, 2024.
- Third place, Best News Series, Joshua Haiar: McCook Lake victims still ‘in the dark,’ waiting for FEMA help nearly seven weeks after flood; FEMA approves $3.5 million for Union County, which includes McCook Lake; ‘We have nothing’: Flood victims say government failures continue after botched flood warning; Federal aid approved for southeastern South Dakota flooding; McCook Lake catastrophe shatters complacency around old flood plans.
- Third place, Best State Government Reporting, Joshua Haiar: Staking claims on unclaimed property: $175 million haul sparks budget battle.
- Third place, Best Portrait Photo, Makenzie Huber: Jim Carlson, with the Minnehaha County Historical Society, repaints a historical marker at Falls Park in Sioux Falls on Sept. 23, 2024.
Other special awards
Two reporters were named Outstanding Young Journalists for 2024 by the South Dakota NewsMedia Association: Amelia Schafer, of the Rapid City Journal, and Wren Murphy, of the Madison Daily Leader.
Journalists under the age of 30 are eligible for the honor. Former winners include South Dakota Searchlight’s Seth Tupper and Makenzie Huber.
SDNA also announced the winners for the top prizes in the contest: General Excellence and Sweepstakes. General Excellence recognizes news organizations for overall quality work in news, editorial, advertising, design, digital and social media. The Sweepstakes category honors news outlets that garner the most points through awards won in categories within their respective circulation divisions.
The SDNA General Excellence winners for 2024 are:
- Division 1 (cities under 3,000): Hill City Prevailer News.
- Division 2 (cities 3,000 to 15,000): Vermillion Plain Talk.
- Division 3 (cities over 15,000): Aberdeen Insider.
The SDNA Sweepstakes winners for 2024 are:
- Division 1 (cities under 3,000): Timber Lake Topic.
- Division 2 (cities 3,000 to 15,000): Custer County Chronicle.
- Division 3 (cities over 15,000): Spearfish Black Hills Pioneer.
The inaugural South Dakota A-Mark Prize for Investigative Journalism was awarded to Ted McDermott of the Rapid City Journal, with second place going to Lee Strubinger of South Dakota Public Broadcasting and third place to The Dakota Scout.
Pierre, SD