2023: Jim Lockwood, The Times-Tribune (Scranton Pa.)

Lockwood’s annual entries in this contest focus on a full body of work instead of a single story. His entry in 2023 was no exception. It included 14 separate articles based in whole or in part on a notice. None of the stories were earth shattering, but eight were important enough to land on the front page, including stories reporting on the expansion of a local VFW post; an economic development plan to improve downtown gateways; Scranton’s first solar farm; the first Wawa store in Lackawanna County; the police department seeking outside accreditation; and the city hiring lobbyists to lobby for federal funds.

2022: Rick Romancito, Taos (N.M.) News

Romancito used a notice to explain how a state commission was considering whether to grant a “cloud-seeding” license designed to increase precipitation and snowpack in the northern part of the state. He reported the notice was “sparking interest through the Northern New Mexico region” due to its broad impact and unusual subject matter, as well as the relatively brief comment period it granted citizens to raise objections. The application was withdrawn shortly after the story was published.

2021: Alyssa Meier, The Leader-News (Washburn, N.D.)

Meier broke a story about a 40-year-old local bank president seeking to obtain a 55 percent share in a holding company that owned three banks in McLean County, ND. The holding company’s transfer of ownership was 18 months in the making, with negotiations quietly taking place behind the scenes before the bank president called Meier to let her know that the public notice announcing her application to the Federal Reserve to take controlling interest would be published soon.

2020: Brad Nygaard, The Journal (Crosby, N.D.)

Nygaard won PNRC’s 2020 Public Notice Journalism Award for a story based on what was ostensibly a run-of-the-mill notice about a Nov. 21, 2019, meeting of the Divide County Commission. The notice informed citizens that the purpose of the meeting was to seek public input to determine if the county should abolish electoral districts, which might change who is eligible to run for a seat on the commission. Nygaard’s front-page story questioned whether the county had the authority to change its election procedures. The story resulted in a local outcry that killed the proposal.

2018: Garret Ellison, MLive and The Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press

A reporter for MLive and The Grand Rapids Press, Ellison was named winner of PNRC’s 2018 Public Notice Journalism Award for a series of stories about an application to pump more groundwater from a local well submitted to Michigan’s state environmental agency by Nestle Waters North America. He is the first reporter in the history of the PNRC contest to be awarded for a story revealing the inadequacy of government website notice.

2017: Amanda Fanger, Reporter & Farmer (Day County, S.D.)

Amanda Fanger, a reporter for Reporter & Farmer, a weekly newspaper in rural Day County, South Dakota, was named winner of the 2017 Public Notice Journalism Award. Fanger won for a story that scratched below the surface of a public notice to reveal a potential embezzlement scheme in one of the small towns within her paper’s coverage area.

2016: Kenneth Little, Greeneville (Tenn.) Sun

Kenneth Little, staff writer for the Greeneville Sun, won the 2016 Public Notice Journalism Prize for coverage of a nursing home in Limestone, Tenn., where Medicare and Medicaid coverage was revoked by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The story followed publication of an official newspaper notice by HHS in the Sun noting “deficiencies” by the hospital.

2015: Jim Lockwood, The Times-Tribune (Scranton Pa.)

Jim Lockwood, staff writer for The Times-Tribune in Scranton, Pa., was named winner of the 2015 Public Notice Journalism Award for a series of stories that deftly incorporated public notice information into his coverage of local government. “His coverage of a proposed new commuter tax was a terrific example of great public notice reporting,” said PNRC President Bradley L. Thompson II. “The city ran the notices, but citizens sued because they believed the action was taken too quickly and without sufficient information to taxpayers. Lockwood’s story referred readers to the dates of the notices so they could check for themselves.”

2014: Mitchell S.D. Daily Republic

The Mitchell (S.D.) Daily Republic was named the first recipient of PNRC’s Public Notice Journalism Award for a series of stories that revealed a secret $175,000 severance package between a local school board and a former superintendent. The paper learned about the agreement after being alerted by a citizen who noted a payment to the former school superintendent listed in the school board’s meeting minutes, which were published as a notice in a local paper.