DEKALB, Illinois – The Quad Cities Regional Business Journal (QCBJ) captured 12 awards – including first place honors for General Excellence and Best Technology/Medical Story – at the 2024 NINA awards ceremony here.
Northern Illinois News Association honors were presented during a banquet at Northern Illinois University on Thursday night, Oct. 24. More than 30 journalists, media leaders and journalism faculty attended the annual awards banquet. It returned to an in-person event after being hosted as a virtual event in 2023.
The QCBJ is owned by John and Aspen Lohman. They own the Corridor Media Group in North Liberty, Iowa. The QCBJ staff includes Jennifer DeWitt, editor; Kenda Burrows, senior reporter; Dave Thompson, content editor; Marsha Luedtke, business development director; and Todd Welvaert, news clerk. Mr. Lohman is the CEO & president.
The QCBJ competed in the nondaily category. It also won awards in a combined category of dailies and non-dailies. In that category they compete against other northern Illinois news agencies including from the Chicagoland area.
The NINA contest period was from May 1, 2023, to April 30, 2024.
Winning entries were:
General Excellence, formerly known as the Sweepstakes Award, QCBJ staff, first place for nondaily newspapers. The judges’ said “Well done from cover to cover. Interesting reading on a wide variety of topics as well as editorial and opinion columns.”
- Best Technology/Medical Story, Dave Thompson, first place, for “Cool tech tackles housing shortage”. NINA judges wrote “In this mind-blowing rendering of the already-here future, the Quad Cities Regional Business Journal shows how 3D printed homes, unthinkable only a handful of years ago, ‘will be built faster, stronger, better and less expensive.’”
- Best Sports Story, Kenda Burrows, second place, for “Iowa’s Caitlin Clark’s star shines bright” story about Ms. Clark’s participation at the 2023 John Deere Classic Pro-Am.
- Best Historical Feature, Kenda Burrows, second place, for “Whitey’s shares 90th birthday party with generations of ‘co-owners’” story. Judges comments included: “Deep dive into the history of this iconic business. Great quotes.”
- Best Coverage of Social Issues, Kenda Burrows, second place, for “RI Rotary Club on mission to flood Africa with clean water”.
- Best In Depth News Story, Dave Thompson, second place, for The Plex: It’s an awesome place” story.
- Best Editorial, Mr. Lohman, third place, for his editorial “A path to passenger rail.” NINA judges comments included “This is a nice statement of the passenger rail problems facing the Quad Cities area, as well as the stalling at the river by the Iowa legislature. It also explains the federal funding that could solve most of the problems.”
- Best In Depth News Story, Kenda Burrows, third place, for her “Deere, its employees, retirees, suppliers drive QC’s success” story.
- Best Technology/Medical Story, Dave Thompson, third place, for “See Spot Work: Dog-like robot is on the job at Clinton plant.”
- Best Design, QCBJ staff, third place. The QCBJ’s print editions are designed by Becky Lyons, vice president of operations & design, and Julia Druckmiller, graphic designer. The award is for excellence in design, typography, photos/graphics use, and general appearance.
- Best Personality Profile, Kenda Burrows, third place, for “Construction, family, community built into Caitlin Russell’s DNA.”
- Best Spot News, Kenda Burrows, third place, for “Capitol Theatre opens to rave reviews” story.
Improving news literacy
NINA’s celebration featured guest speaker Michael Spikes. He is director of Teach for Chicago Journalism project. Mr. Spikes is a lecturer at Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University; and co-founder of Illinois Media Literacy Coalition.
He discussed the efforts of the journalism program and the coalition’s work to improve news literacy and attract young people to the journalism field. In his call to action, Mr. Spikes encouraged the crowd of journalists and educators to collaborate to recruit and train future journalists.
Now in its 62st year, the news association was founded Dec. 1, 1962, as the Northern Illinois Editorial Association. In 2022, its name changed to the Northern Illinois News Association. The aim was to reflect NINA’s commitment to Northern Illinois journalism and the changing industry.
