CANTON – North Country Public Radio has been honored with seven major national journalism awards for its reporting in 2023.

The Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA) announced NCPR has won seven 2024 PMJA Awards. Six of those were for best feature in five categories: two for hard news, one each for health/medical, human interest, economic impacts on local communities, and sports. NCPR's series on health care in the North Country, Imperfect Solutions, was honored in the Best Series category.

“PMJA recognizes the best journalism in the public radio system,” said NCPR News Director David Sommerstein. “To be honored with seven awards among the excellence of our colleagues is quite an achievement for our newsroom. We’re so proud of the work all our reporters put in every day to spotlight the most important issues facing the North Country, and to reflect the diversity and sense of fun and delight in our region as well.”

The PMJA Awards are the top national awards in public media news and honor digital and broadcast journalists. “This year, we had over 1,450 entries from 144 different organizations in our awards contest,” said PMJA Executive Director Christine Paige Diers. “We’re proud to be able to recognize the great journalism across the country through this contest.” NCPR competes in Division C: newsrooms with 8-15 reporters. (NCPR had eight news personnel in 2023.)

In addition to the award for the health care series, which included contributions from all members of the newsroom, several NCPR journalists were recognized for their individual reporting:

Adirondack reporter Emily Russell won for her profile of a Ukrainian boy who graduated from a Lake Placid high school and her reporting on disagreement over low-income housing in Old Forge.

Northern Light co-host Monica Sandreczki was recognized for her reporting on end-of-life care in the North Country.

Report For America core reporter Lucy Grindon won awards for reporting on a controversy over a drag queen story hour in Lake Luzerne and for her sound-rich depiction of dirt track racing at the Mohawk International Raceway.

Champlain Valley reporter Cara Chapman was honored for her reporting on an incident involving police at the Essex County demolition derby.

"It’s always exciting to win awards, but winning so many PMJA honors is truly special," said NCPR General Manager Mitch Teich. "They represent the best of the best from our public media peers around the United States.  Our journalists work incredibly hard every day to produce stories that matter to the North Country and they are so deserving of this amazing recognition."