It’s award season in the journalism world, and the INDY recently won a few accolades.
INDY staff earned six awards from the North Carolina Press Association.
Chloe Courtney Bohl’s dogged reporting on financial and mismanagement issues at Raleigh HBCU Saint Augustine’s University was part of a package of stories by the INDY and The Assembly that took home the first place Duke University/Green-Rossiter Award for Distinguished Newspaper Work in Higher Education Reporting. Check out the winning investigation, co-reported by Chloe and The Assembly’s Erin Gretzinger.
Another INDY/Assembly collaboration—on ShotSpotter, co-authored by Justin Laidlaw—took first place for city, county, and government reporting. The winning story looked at the adoption of the gunshot detection technology across the state, including in Durham, and whether it really works.
Chase Pellegrini de Paur won first place in the news feature writing category for his not-so-serious dispatch from Flagstock, a $500,000 “rager” for Chapel Hill fraternity brothers who became MAGA darlings after they held up an American Flag during a pro-Palestine protest at UNC last year.
Lena Geller won third place in the beat feature reporting category for a package of Durham food and dining stories. The winning stories were Lena’s coverage of the fallout at local restaurant Plum after the owner used a racial slur (our most-read story of all time), a final dinner service at beloved downtown restaurant COPA, and a re-creation of Rachael Ray’s 2005 attempt to dine out for a day in Durham with just $40.
Angelica Edwards won third place in the spot photography category for the dramatic images she captured as campus police and counter protesters clashed with a pro-Palestine encampment at the same UNC-Chapel Hill protest last May.
And creative director Nicole Pajor Moore won third place in the illustration category for her graphic incorporating elements from the INDY’s 2024 special Earth Day edition.
We also won three Green Eyeshade Awards.
Creative Director Nicole Pajor Moore and former INDY graphic designer Ann Salman took first place in cover design. Nicole and Ann’s winning designs brought to life cover stories on the seafood industry, the Duke Respect Durham campaign, and a legal dispute over derelict properties involving a prominent local family.
Lena Geller won second place in food and dining reporting for the same package of stories on Plum, COPA, and dining on $40 a day in Durham.
Culture editor Sarah Edwards won third place in criticism and reviews for a package of lush writing on a musical adaptation of Bull Durham, a novel about a fictional campus murder with real echoes at UNC, and an artist using tissue paper sculptures at Historic Stagville to evoke the lives of enslaved children.
And finally, Lena Geller got an honorable mention in the 2025 AAN Awards food writing category for her story revisiting Rachael Ray’s $40 a Day challenge twenty years later.
“This feature exemplifies what alt media is meant to do,” judges wrote. “It’s culturally astute, anti-authoritarian, moderately madcap, and fiercely aligned with working people.”
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