T-Squared: Tribune wins 5 awards from Texas Managing Editors

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The Texas Tribune's journalists won five top honors in the annual awards conferred by Texas Managing Editors, which represents news leaders across our state. The awards, which recognize work published in 2023, were announced this weekend in Temple at the group’s annual conference.

Eleanor Klibanoff, the Tribune’s women’s health reporter, was recognized as Star Reporter of the Year among entrants from publications with the largest news staffs. She was honored for articles on the closing of rural delivery rooms and the dilemma faced by a woman who found out the twins she was carrying would not survive outside the womb, as well as a three-part series on the decadeslong effort to tilt the federal judiciary in Texas to the right. “Eleanor Klibanoff’s articles reel readers in and make them desperate to come back for more over and over and over,” the judges wrote. “Her phenomenal reporting will steal readers’ words, while also evoking the emotions necessary to galvanize them to action once they've caught their breath.” Klibanoff finished second place for the feature writing prize.

Kiah Collier, Jeremy Schwartz and Lexi Churchill of the Texas Tribune-ProPublica investigative team won first place for Star Investigative Report in the Tribune’s size classification for their investigation into a former NFL player who convinced Texas officials to spend millions of dollars on his company's child-fingerprinting kits through lies, exaggerations and promises of endorsements at high-profile football games. “This investigation was well-executed, authoritatively told and rife with eye-popping examples of ignorance and greed at the highest levels — and all at the expense of legitimate efforts to locate missing children,” the judges wrote.

Both Klibanoff and the investigative team were also awarded Charles E. Green Awards from the Headliners Foundation in their respective categories. Those awards are given statewide, regardless of newsroom size.

Lomi Kriel, Lexi Churchill, Perla Trevizo and Jessica Priest of the Tribune-ProPublica team and Jinitzail Hernández, Zach Despart and Uriel J. García of the Tribune shared with reporters from the Houston Chronicle the Freedom of Information Award (among newsrooms with at least 20 journalists) for an investigation into law enforcement failures in the May 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, as well as stories about gaps in data around police responses to mass shootings, decades of blocked gun reform proposals, and the fear officers felt toward the gunman’s AR-15 rifle.

Yuriko Schumacher and Alex Ford shared first place in the largest newsroom category in infographics for their coverage of Texas’ record $32.7 billion surplus. They also received an honorable mention in the same category. Pooja Salhotra and Jinitzail Hernández placed first in the Tribune’s classification in video for a story on the legacy of a 1998 hate crime in the East Texas town of Jasper.

This was the third year in which Tribune journalists were recognized. Formerly known as the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors, Texas Managing Editors allowed online, nonprofit newsrooms to enter starting in 2022.

In other recognitions, Patrick Svitek, Zach Despart, James Barragán, Carla Astudillo and Chris Essig received honorable mention for Star Breaking News Report of the Year. And Kate McGee and Barragán placed second for Star Investigative Report of the Year. Both recognitions were in the largest newsroom classification.

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