The Detroit News earned 15 first-place honors Tuesday night in the 2026 Excellence in Journalism Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists’ Detroit chapter for journalism done in 2025.
Among the first-place winners for reporting were Jennifer Chambers, George Hunter, Robert Snell, Jacob Carah and Aya Fayad for breaking/spot news; Breana Noble for autos reporting; Craig Mauger for education; Melody Baetens for food; Beth LeBlanc and Mauger for open government, as well as consumer/watchdog; and Tony Paul for sports.
Nolan Finley, Kaitlyn Buss and Nicole Cook earned first for editorial writing; as did Daniel Howes for column writing.
Additional first-place honors went to Andy Morrison for feature photography; David Guralnick for sports photography; Katy Kildee for sports videography; Steve Wilkinson for headline writing; James Hollar and Genna Barner for front page design, and Hollar for inside page design and sports page design.
The awards come a month after The Detroit News was named Newspaper of the Year by the Michigan Press Association, the fourth consecutive year it has received the honor.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Detroit News staff earn 15 top journalism awards from SPJ
Reporting by Kevin J. Hardy, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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