The Center for Public Integrity has won the 2023 Excellence in Financial Journalism Award for best audio reporting for Season 2 of its podcast, “The Heist.”
“The Wealth Vortex,” produced in partnership with Transmitter Media, follows Iowa entrepreneur ReShonda Young as she tries to start a Black-owned bank to help address the racial wealth gap in her community, a local manifestation of a nationwide problem fueled by centuries of discrimination, institutionalized theft and violence.
The award, presented by the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, recognizes “exemplary coverage of a business, financial or economic news story using radio, podcasts, social media or other online audio formats.”
Twenty-one people across the two media organizations worked on the podcast and related elements. That team includes host and reporter Jamie Smith Hopkins from Public Integrity and producers Camille Petersen, Mitchell Johnson and Isabel Carter and executive editor Sara Nics from Transmitter Media.
Season 2 of “The Heist” has also been recognized this year with a Peabody nomination; an award from the Shaufler Prize; a Signal Award silver medal; a “Best in Business” award; a National Association of Black Journalists award nomination; and finalist honors from the Ambie Awards, Dateline Awards, WAN-IFRA North American Digital Media Awards, Online Journalism Awards and the INN Nonprofit News Awards.
Other Public Integrity work this year has been honored with the Paul Tobenkin Award, a National Headliner Award, the Sigma Award recognizing the world’s best data journalism, Mental Health America’s 2023 Media Award, Dateline Awards and the Gracie Awards.
Founded in 1989, the Center for Public Integrity is one of the oldest nonprofit news organizations in the country and is dedicated to investigating systems and circumstances that contribute to inequality in the United States.