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The awards on this page recognize CT Mirror’s journalistic excellence and reflect our mission of informing Connecticut about public policy, holding government accountable, and amplifying diverse voices and perspectives.

CTSPJ Awards (May 2023)

The Connecticut Mirror took home ten first-place prizes, two-second place prizes, and four third-place prizes at the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists (CTSPJ)’s Excellence in Journalism Contest.

Here are CT Mirror’s awards from the contest, which recognized stories published in 2022:

Business category

Erica Phillips, first place: Tax credits to film companies have cost CT hundreds of millions. Are they worth it?

Erica Phillips, second place: Demand for nurses is urgent & CT’s colleges and universities can’t keep up

Continuing coverage

Erica Phillips, Katy Golvala and Dave Altimari, first place: Hospital consolidation in Connecticut remakes the health care landscape

Diversity coverage

Ginny Monk, first place: CT Parents, students call for school anti-racism policies

Education

Ginny Monk, first place: How politics derailed mental health care at Killingly High School

Government

Keith Phaneuf, first place: CT’s government was once broke. Is it now holding too much cash?

Jan Ellen Spiegel, third place: New England takes a detour on grid reform; griping ensues

Health

Katy Golvala, first place: Housekeepers know they’re essential. They want to get treated like it

In-depth

Ginny Monk, Camila Vallejo, first place: Fighting back: How some CT tenants are organizing to improve their housing

Katy Golvala, Dave Altimari, third place: Connecticut’s roads are deadlier than ever. Figuring out why is complicated

Investigative

Andrew Brown, third place: Manager at CT State Pier recommended itself for $87 million in contracts

Photo essay

Yehyun Kim, first place: Making a home away from war

Reporting series

Ginny Monk, third place: Notice to quit

And a couple from the opinion department:

General column

David Holahan, first place: So, you want to go to Harvard?

Humorous column

David Holahan, first place: Greatest hits of the far right Supremes

David Holahan, second place: A pandemic of political ads

NENPA Awards (May 2023)

The New England Newspaper & Press Association (NENPA) is the professional trade organization for newspapers in the six New England states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island. It recognizes the extraordinary achievements of newspapers and newspaper personnel in the six-state New England region by presenting a wide variety of prestigious awards each year. In 2023 CT Mirror won 14 awards: four first-place, seven second-place, and three third-place. 

First Place

Second Place

Third Place

CTSPJ Awards (May 2022)

The Connecticut Mirror took home nine first-, second- and third-place prizes at the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists (CTSPJ)’s Excellence in Journalism Contest.

Here are CT Mirror’s awards from the contest, which recognized stories published in 2021:

First Place

Second Place

Third Place

NENPA Awards (April 2022)

The New England Newspaper & Press Association (NENPA) is the professional trade organization for newspapers in the six New England states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island. It recognizes the extraordinary achievements of newspapers and newspaper personnel in the six-state New England region by presenting a wide variety of prestigious awards each year.

Major Awards

  • Yankee Quill Award: Tom Condon was one of six journalists who received the Yankee Quill Award from the New England Newspaper and Press Association (NENPA) this year. The award recognizes Tom’s “contributions to the betterment of journalism in the six-state region” over the course of his five-decade career in Connecticut journalism.
  • General Excellence: The entire CT Mirror staff was recognized with a second place award for general excellence across all coverage over the past year.

First Place

Second Place

Third Place

CT Society of Professional Journalists Awards (May 2021)

First Place

Second Place

Third Place

Education Writers Association (April 2021)

CT Mirror Housing and Education Reporter Jacqueline Rabe Thomas won the national first place award for investigative reporting from the Education Writers Association for her housing discrimination work.

ProPublica

Here are two comments from the judges:

  • “Outstanding reporting, showing why more education reporters should leave their silos and report at the intersections of their beats and other social inequity issues.”
  • “Well-written, with a commanding voice. Filled with great details, quotes and narrative drive.”

NENPA (April 2021)

The New England Newspaper & Press Association (NENPA) is the professional trade organization for newspapers in the six New England states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island. It recognizes the extraordinary achievements of newspapers and newspaper personnel in the six-state New England region by presenting a wide variety of prestigious awards each year.

First Place

• CT Mirror Staff
Overall Covid Coverage

• Jenna Carlesso, Health Reporting
Complaints pile up against health care sharing ministries as state mounts a defense

• Kelan Lyons, Social Issues Feature Story
Should police be social workers?

• Mark Pazniokas, Human Interest Feature Story
She worked at a hotspot.  Did coronavirus follow her home?

• Mark Pazniokas, General News Story
The night Covid-19 silenced the slots at Foxwoods

• Keith Phaneuf and Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, Government Reporting
Lawmakers waived appointments to secure Dalio funds for CT schools

• Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, Investigative/Enterprise
Invisible Walls : Separated by Design

• Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, Education Reporting
A quarter of CT students went MIA when COVID closed schools. Could holding live, online classes lure them back?

Second Place

• Jenna Carlesso, Keith Phaneuf and Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, Investigative/Enterprise
The state doesn’t track how many nursing home workers have coronavirus.

Third Place

• Kelan Lyons
Inmates seeking compassionate release face laws not built for Covid-19

Featured Photography

• First Place, Yehyun Kim, Feature Photo
Magical Merry-Go Round

• Third Place, Yehyun Kim, Feature Photo
Much Needed Haircut

Publick Occurrences (November 2020)

Each year the New England Newspaper & Press Association presents the Publick Occurrences Awards named for the first newspaper published in America in 1690. The awards recognize the year’s most outstanding journalism by individuals and teams at New England newsrooms.

Cloe Poisson / CTMirror.org

Jenna Carlesso, Award for excellence in New England Journalism
Crisis in CT’s Nursing Homes

Judges’ comments: This news organization forced the revelation of how big a problem – COVID – really was in nursing homes by focusing on the flaws in the data, forcing better reporting. Then they went a step further correlating poor health grades in inspections to COVID outcomes, while clearly explaining the health risks of untested staffers and asymptomatic infected patients, that were the causes of an agonizing 56% of deaths in the state. COVID hit nursing homes fast and hard, and this series showed the gaps in data, inspection, staffing and oversight. It resulted in positive changes. Well planned and executed with very good correlation of data.