The Granite State News Collaborative, of which NHPR is a member, will receive the first Fitzwater Medallion for Public Service at the 2022 Fitzwater Honors for its critically vital and comprehensive coverage of the global pandemic and its profound impact on New Hampshire.
“The Granite State News Collaborative is a wonderful example of journalists working together to cover the whole state, sharing work and ideas to make sure important stories come to light,” says NHPR News Director Dan Barrick.
In early 2020 as the COVID-19 Pandemic first hit New England, a young Granite State News Collaborative was just wrapping up its solutions journalism coverage of mental health and was preparing to launch its Race and Equity Project.
On March 11, 2020, as the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic the Collaborative’s more than 20 media and community partners pivoted to in-depth coverage to address the concerns of the Granite State.
Over the next two years the Collaborative’s partners and freelancers worked tirelessly to keep the state informed through a pandemic that infected more than 300,000 Granite Staters - helping NH navigate mask mandates, remote learning, child care, health care to emergency relief, and more.
The Fitzwater Center Medallion at Franklin Pierce University honors those who have demonstrated through their personal and professional lives that they share their profound commitment to providing citizens with the data they need to make informed decisions.
Granite State News Collaborative Media Partners:
The Berlin Daily Sun
Business NH Magazine
The Business Journal of Greater Keene, Brattleboro and Peterborough
The Concord Monitor
The Conway Daily Sun
The Eagle-Tribune
The Keene Sentinel
The Laconia Daily Sun
Manchester Ink Link
The Nashua Telegraph
NH Bar News
NH Business Review
New Hampshire Press Association
New Hampshire PBS
New Hampshire Public Radio
The Monadnock Ledger-Transcript
Seacoast Media Group
The Valley News
Community Partners:
Citizens Count
Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications
New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute
New Hampshire Humanities