Reporting on Portland arts spaces, Shaniko’s up-and-coming music scene and the Sports Bra take top honors in Northwest Excellence in Journalism contest.
This week Oregon Business took home four 2024 Northwest SPJ Excellence in Journalism Awards. The contest rewards outstanding work from journalists in SPJ’s Region 10, which includes Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon.
The winning stories, which were announced by the Greater Oregon SPJ Tuesday, were:
“The Wide(ning) World of Women’s Sports” won first place in the food & restaurants category in the magazine division. For this feature, which ran in OB’s March 2024, freelance writer Amy Milshtein wrote about Portland’s Sports Bra, the first ever sports bar to focus on showing women’s sports. Milshtein wrote about the person and the passion that created the space. In Founder Jenny Nguyen told OB she hoped to expand to other cities, and on Tuesday she announced plans to open franchises in Boston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas and St. Louis
“Making Space,” a package of three stories about new arts venues opening in Portland, won first place arts & culture category in the magazine division. OB staff writer Garrett Andrews’ story, “Sound the Alarm,” chronicled Live Nation’s efforts to build a new live music venue in Portland — and explained why many in the music scene are less than thrilled about this development. The package also included two stories by OB editor Christen McCurdy: “Reading the Room,” about Literary Arts’ ambitious plans for its new building in the Central East Side, and “Loud and Clear,” about the nonprofit Friends’ of Noise’s efforts to remake the shuttered Dancin’ Bare strip club as a safe, inclusive all-ages music venue with an innovative business model.
“Come Back Singing,” freelancer Ellee Thalheimer’s feature about how the music scene is slowly reviving the Central Oregon ghost town of Shaniko, won two awards. OB staff photographer Jason Kaplan won first place for feature photography in the magazine division, and Thalheimer won the second place award for arts & culture writing in the magazine division.
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