For the second consecutive year, Boulder Reporting Lab won the Colorado Press Association’s General Excellence award, the top newsroom honor in its division, while also earning 22 category honors in the association’s 2026 Better News Media Contest.
BRL received 10 first-place awards, eight second-place honors and four third-place awards for journalism published in 2025, its fourth full year of publishing. For the second year in a row, the nonprofit newsroom was also the top point-earner for editorial awards among Class 1 news organizations statewide. BRL tied the Aspen Daily News for the most points in Class 1’s other and mixed media categories.
The awards, announced Saturday, Aug. 29, spanned public service, investigative and breaking news reporting, along with data journalism, education, environment, health, equity, newsletters and digital publishing.
BRL’s first-place honors were led by public service journalism produced during Xcel Energy’s wildfire-prevention power shutoffs in December. Por Jaijongkit, Brooke Stephenson and John Herrick were recognized for coverage that began with news of Xcel’s planned shutoff, continued as thousands remained without power and examined both the larger questions raised by repeated outages and the unequal toll on residents. Jaijongkit and Stephenson also won first place for breaking news and deadline reporting for the initial story.
Accountability reporting received several of the contest’s strongest honors. Brooke Stephenson won second place for best investigative story package for her reporting on a contested $48 million proposal involving Boulder’s Iris Fields. The coverage revealed details of the proposed land deal and tracked the community response through the county’s eventual approval of a different sale that preserved the fields.
Stephenson also won first place in social justice and equity reporting for exposing how residents of San Lazaro mobile home park had lived for years without drinkable water. Her sustained reporting on Boulder’s use of automated license plate readers and police data-sharing practices earned second place for best series or sustained coverage.
The BRL team won first place in data journalism for an interactive project showing which of more than 16,000 Boulder homes were added to the city’s expanded wildfire risk zone. Stephenson received first place for best editorial special section for a package documenting how federal cuts reshaped life in Boulder, from laid-off federal workers struggling to receive unemployment to cuts at a national women-in-tech organization based at CU Boulder and the loss of environmental justice funding.
Individual first-place awards also went to education contributor Jenna Sampson for her profile of a new principal changing the culture at Casey Middle School; Jaijongkit for her reporting on the defunding of a Boulder air and climate pollution monitoring program; and Stephenson for her inside look at Boulder’s first psilocybin healing centers.
One of BRL’s first-place honors went to Nibbles, the weekly food newsletter launched in late 2025 by John Lehndorff, a longtime Boulder food writer who is now BRL’s food editor. The award recognized the newsletter’s distinctive mix of food news, history, recommendations and reporting on the people and places that shape how Boulder County eats.
The BRL team also won first place for best website, while BRL Today earned second place for best newsletter.
Other second-place honors went to John Herrick and Jaijongkit for their breaking coverage of the Nederland shopping center fire; Herrick for coverage of Boulder’s 2025 City Council election; and Stephenson for stories about a recovery advocate helping hundreds of people in Boulder County, a family’s fight to have evidence tested after Megan Trussell’s death and mobile home residents facing summer heat after their shade trees were cut down.
Third-place awards recognized Stephenson’s reporting on farmers’ concerns over Boulder County’s open space tax, the city’s sharing of license plate data on a network accessed by federal immigration authorities and the struggles of federal workers who lost their jobs. Contributor Simon Testa received third place for opinion writing examining access, risk and inclusion in Boulder’s outdoor culture.
The Colorado Press Association’s annual contest recognizes journalism produced by news organizations across the state. This year’s entries were judged by the Iowa Newspaper Foundation.
The awards reflect BRL’s continued focus on community-centered journalism that holds local institutions accountable, explains complex issues and gives Boulder County residents practical information they can use. They also reflect the journalism our readers make possible through their support.
Launched at the end of 2021, Boulder Reporting Lab has earned dozens of state and regional journalism honors while building a nonprofit newsroom centered on accountability, public service and deep local reporting.