|
|
|
Chicago, IL —
Rebecca Hyman from the Bridgewater Independent (Mass.) has been named News Writer of the Year for Division C in the 2009 Best of GateHouse contest.
About her entry
Rebecca Hyman used her reporting skills and storytelling abilities to question procedures at a local transfer station, show the human story behind the same-sex marriage debate and look into the escape of a prisoner from an area corrections center. In her investigation of a transfer station’s management, Hyman started with a simple complaint about residents avoiding trash fees. She followed the trail to a story of unsanctioned operation, missing public money and accounting records literally ripped out of ledgers. Hyman approached the issue of same-sex marriage by profiling two women who were married just four days after same-sex marriage was legalized in Massachusetts, tackling the legal landscape with ease and clarity. She also uncovered a series of administrative errors that allowed a minimum-security prisoner to escape after he learned – before his jailers did – that he was going to face charges in a 13-year-old rape case.
Judges’ comments
“Rebecca Hyman is my kind of reporter – the kind driven by courage, determination, intelligence, curiosity, sensitivity, fairness and love of language. … She is doing work at a community newspaper that many metro-market reporters only wish they could do.”
Finalist
Susan Parkou Weinstein, Raynham (Mass.) Call
Rebecca Hyman from the Bridgewater Independent (Mass.) has been named News Writer of the Year for Division C in the 2009 Best of GateHouse contest.
About her entry
Rebecca Hyman used her reporting skills and storytelling abilities to question procedures at a local transfer station, show the human story behind the same-sex marriage debate and look into the escape of a prisoner from an area corrections center. In her investigation of a transfer station’s management, Hyman started with a simple complaint about residents avoiding trash fees. She followed the trail to a story of unsanctioned operation, missing public money and accounting records literally ripped out of ledgers. Hyman approached the issue of same-sex marriage by profiling two women who were married just four days after same-sex marriage was legalized in Massachusetts, tackling the legal landscape with ease and clarity. She also uncovered a series of administrative errors that allowed a minimum-security prisoner to escape after he learned – before his jailers did – that he was going to face charges in a 13-year-old rape case.
Judges’ comments
“Rebecca Hyman is my kind of reporter – the kind driven by courage, determination, intelligence, curiosity, sensitivity, fairness and love of language. … She is doing work at a community newspaper that many metro-market reporters only wish they could do.”
Finalist
Susan Parkou Weinstein, Raynham (Mass.) Call
