Planet Detroit takes home 7 first-place SPJ awards

Planet Detroit journalists won seven first-place awards at the annual awards ceremony of the Detroit Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists chapter. The publication took home eight awards in total.

SPJ awarded Planet Detroit first-place accolades for Newsletter strategy, Racial Justice Reporting, Engagement-driven coverage, Consumer/Watchdog Investigative Reporting, and Explanatory Story, and Environment Reporting. Planet Detroit received additional awards in Environment Reporting and Local News Reporting.

Winning journalism included:

• First Place to Nina Ignaczak in Newsletter Strategy for the Planet Detroit newsletter
• First Place to Nina Ignaczak and Brian Allnutt for Solutions for Building Tree Equity in Detroit. (Environment Reporting)
• First Place in Racial Justice Reporting to Rukiya Colvin, Nina Ignaczak & Nick Hagen for Building opportunities for Black Detroiters to enjoy outdoor recreation racial Justice Reporting) The story package includes:
  • Building a Black birding community in Detroit
  • Urban Forest School brings nature-based education to Detroit’s kids of color
  • How Detroit’s Black-led organizations are cultivating access to nature as acts of liberation
• First Place to Tom Perkins and Nina Ignaczak for Reporting on DTE Energy (Consumer/Watchdog Investigative Reporting). Stories include:
  • DTE-linked dark money group funded campaign to strip Whitmer’s lockdown authority, tax records show 
  • Public frustration with DTE is growing. So are its charitable and political spending.
  • Is ‘renewable natural gas’ a real option to power Michigan? Consultant with ties to DTE and Consumers hired by regulators to help decide
  • Detroiters call on regulators to reject DTE’s rate hike, cite ‘utility redlining’
  • Regulators order DTE, Consumers to increase transparency around electric service reliability
  • State regulators order independent audit of DTE, Consumers over outages and safety
  • DTE plan calls for early coal-plant retirement, more renewables. Advocates call for faster progress, local ownership.
  • Regulators reject 90% of DTE’s rate increase request after intense public pushback
• First Place to Nina Ignaczak, Julie Walker, Patrick Dunn, Sarah Williams and Allison Torres Burtka for Planet Detroit Climate Guides (Engagement Driven Coverage). Guides include:
  • STAYING SAFE AND COOL IN A DETROIT HEATWAVE
  • HOW IS CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECTING MY HEALTH?
  • HOW SAFE IS MY DRINKING WATER?
  • HOW SAFE IS MY AIR QUALITY?
  • HOW DOES TRANSPORTATION IMPACT CLIMATE CHANGE?
  • WHAT IS CLIMATE RESILIENCE?
  • WHAT IS ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE?
• First Place to Rukiya Colvin for No, throwing trash out the window does not create jobs, A look at Detroit’s litter problems (Environment Reporting)
• First Place to Brian Allnutt for Experts weigh in on how to fix and pay for Detroit’s flooding problems (Explanatory Story)
• Fourth Place to Nina Ignaczak and Brian Allnutt for Reporting on Southwest Detroit’s Environment Issues (Community/Local News Reporting). Stories include:
  • Weary of waiting for a truck route ordinance, Southwest Detroit residents ask city officials to enforce existing traffic laws
  • Bilingual contractor training program aims to boost city’s lead abatement work in Southwest Detroit

Planet Detroit is an independent, nonprofit newsroom launched in 2019. Its mission is to produce quality climate, equity, health and environment journalism in the public interest that centers grassroots voices, holds power accountable, spotlights solutions + serves the community.