ATHENS, OH (March 23, 2016) – Judges for the National Press Photographers Association's 2016 Best Of Photojournalism Multimedia contest today announced the winners, and The New York Times has won Best Of The Web Multimedia for "Outlaw Ocean."
The team that produced "Outlaw Ocean" includes reporter Ian Urbina, with contributed reporting from Bimitris Bounias and Nikolas Leontopoulos. Kitty Bennet and Susan C. Beachy contributed research, and it was produced by Hannah Fairfield, Jacky Myint, Derek Watkins, and Alexandra Garcia. Video was produced by Aaron Byrd, Alexandra Garcia, Ed Ou, Ben C. Solomon, Catherine Spangler, Jessica Naudziunas, Ben Laffin, Shannon Service, Basil Childers, Greg Kwedar, Beth Flynn, and Selase Kove-Seyram..
First place in the Multimedia Portfolio Individual category is Katie Falkenberg of the Los Angeles Times for "Aid In Dying." Second place is Emily Kassie of Huffingtonpost.com for three stories, including "Mothers Of ISIS," and third place is Brian Storm of MediaStorm for four stories, including "Fight Hate With Love." An honorable mention was awarded to Carrie Cochran of Cincinnati.com.
The New York Times visuals team also won first place in Multimedia Portfolio Team for the stories "Greenland Is Melting Away," "Beiber, Dipplo Skrillex Make A Hit," "A New Whitney," "Walking Gaza," and "Outlaw Ocean."
Second place in the Multimedia Portfolio Team category is Kainaz Amaria and the visuals team from National Public Radio for producing five web-native stories (including packages on the Brazilian rain forest, Reid Wiseman's photographs from space, and destruction in Yemen). And third place is Tim Rasmussen and the visuals team at ESPN for a portfolio of stories.
Honorable mentions in the Multimedia Portfolio Team category were awarded to Ken Lyons and The Denver Post visuals team, Scott LaPierre and The Boston Globe visuals team, and Alexia Singh and the Reuters visuals team.
In the Visual Column or Blog category, first place is Kainaz Amaria of NPR Visuals for "Look At This." Second place is Tim Rasmussen of ESPN, and third place is Brian Cassella of The Chicago Tribune. Honorable mentions were awarded to Erin Brethauer and Tim Hussin of the San Francisco Chronicle, and to James Colton of ZPhotoJournal for ZUMA Press.
In the Tablet/Mobile Delivery category, first place is The New York Times for "Dear Architects: Sound Matters." The team included reporter Michael Kimmelman, and it was produced by Alicia DeSantis, Jon Huang, and Graham Roberts, with video by Jon Kasbe and audio by Evan Grothjan. Additional production was provided by Yuliya Parshina-Kottas and Ben Laffin. There were no other awards in this category.
In the News Multimedia Package category, first place is Danny Gawlowski, Corinne Chin and Lauren Frohne of The Seattle Times for "Live Updates From May Day In Seattle." Second place is The Boston Globe visuals editing staff for "Desperate Journey," and third place is Mark Vancleave of the Star Tribune for "North Minneapolis Finds Voice In Fourth Precinct Encampment."
In the Feature Multimedia Package category, first place is a team from The New York Times for "Beiber, Dipplo Skrillex Make A Hit." The interviews were conducted by Jon Pareles, and the package was produced by Wilson Andrew, Alicia DeSantis, Taige Jensen, Yuliya Parshina-Kottas, Soo-Jeong Kang and Graham Roberts, with photography by Alex Di Suver. The directory of photography was Kai Regan (Justin Bieber and Skrillex); Nikita Carpenter Jr. and Sean Biffar Camera Operations (Diplo); Corey Whitted and Daniel Guevara Camera Operations (Justin Bieber and Skrillex). With audio engineers A.J. Wilhelm (Diplo) and Tommy Cella (Justin Bieber and Skrillex). Also on the team were key grip Ryan Moraga (Justin Bieber and Skrillex) and production coordinator Ethan Koral (Justin Bieber and Skrillex)
Second place the Feature Multimedia Package category is Kainaz Amaria of NPR Visuals, and third place is Brian Storm of MediaStorm. Honorable mentions were awarded to The New York Times for "A New Whitney" written by Michael Kimmelman, produced by Jeremy Ashkenas & Alicia Desantis, graphics by Mika Grondohl, Yuliya Parshina-Kottas & Graham Roberts, videos by Damon Winter, additional photography by Leslye Davis additional production by Soo-Jeong Kang and Margaret Williams, Kathleen Flynn of NOLA.com, Dario Lopez-Mills of the Associated Press, and Tara Todras-Whitehill of Al Jazeera America.
In the Sports Multimedia Package category, first place is Aaron Lavinsky of the Star Tribune for "Hope On The Range." Second place is Catherine Spangler, Graham Roberts, Joe Ward, and Wilson Andrews of The New York Times for "The Sounds of the Downhill". Third place is Catrin Einhorn, Joe Ward, and Josh Williams of The New York Times for "The Top Tennis Player in the World Started Here". Two honorable mentions were awarded to Tim Rasmussen of ESPN.
In the Documentary Multimedia Package category, first place is The New York Times for Outlaw Ocean." Second place is Katie Falkenberg of the Los Angeles Times, and third place is Matt Black of MSNBC.com. Honorable mentions were awarded to Renee Jones Schneider of the Star Tribune, and to the visuals team from The Wall Street Journal.
Contest chairman Terry Eiler estimated there were approximately 1,000 multimedia project entries in this year's contest.
The judges for the Multimedia categories were Wesley Lindamood, a senior interaction designer for the National Public Radio visuals team; Luanne Dietz, a three-time Emmy Award-winning storyteller who currently works for CNN Courageous; and Nancy Andrews is the Ogden Professor of Media Innovation for West Virginia University.
Eiler wanted to make it clear to the winners and entrants that whenever there was an entry under consideration from NPR, Lindamood excused himself from the judging and was replaced in those categories by a substitute judge. When needed, Ohio University assistant professor Josh Birnbaum and associate professor Rebecca Sell stepped in as volunteer.
Winners in the Best Of Photojournalism Picture Editing categories and in the Still Photography categories are being verified by the contest coordinators and will be announced within the next few days, Eiler reports.
This year's NPPA Best Of Photojournalism contests are once again sponsored by Ohio University's School of Visual Communication and the Michigan State University School of Journalism.
