First-place honors include spot news, investigative reporting, news columnist, digital presentation, community journalism, single-topic series, sports, and feature writing; Milkovits named Distinguished Journalist.
PROVIDENCE, R.I., May 12, 2025 — The Boston Globe Rhode Island team won 43 Rhode Island Press Association Awards in recognition of outstanding work by journalists in the Ocean State in 2024, including 18 first place finishes.
Boston Globe Rhode Island, which launched in 2019, won 18 first-place awards, 11 second-place awards, and 14 third-place awards in categories including news, investigative reporting, government reporting, education, business, sports, feature writing, community journalism, neighborhood coverage, email newsletter, and single-topic series. Investigative journalist Amanda Milkovits was honored as Distinguished Journalist, in recognition of general excellence and reporting that has led to changes in procedures, accountability practices, and policies at the state and local levels.
“I am incredibly proud of my team, and thrilled to see their hard work recognized,” said Globe Rhode Island Editor Lylah M. Alphonse. “It’s particularly meaningful for us to be recognized for our community and neighborhood coverage as well as our investigative work, government accountability reporting, and hard news coverage, because we strive to be a news resource for all of Rhode Island.”
Reporters Alexa Gagosz, Amanda Milkovits, Carlos Muñoz, Christopher Gavin, Dan McGowan, Ed Fitzpatrick, Omar Mohammed, and Steph Machado each received multiple honors at the awards ceremony, which was held May 9 at the Quonset “O” Club in North Kingstown. Globe correspondents Alexa Coultoff, Bob Abelman, and Kevin McNamara also won awards for work published in Globe Rhode Island, as did Globe photographers Erin Clark, Lane Turner, and David L. Ryan.
In addition to being named Distinguished Journalist, Milkovits won first place for investigative reporting for her story about a man who was wrongly accused of the murder of a little girl, and first place for her in-depth feature story on incarcerated teenagers writing obituaries for those buried in a nearby pauper’s graveyard.
Gagosz once again won first place for Single-Topic Series on the housing and homelessness crisis in Rhode Island, the fourth year in a row that she has earned top honors; she also won first place health care reporting for her coverage of Prospect Medical Holdings, along with six other awards. She and Machado shared first place honors for Best Digital Presentation for their data-driven multimedia story about the one-year anniversary of the Washington Bridge shut down. Machado also won first place for business reporting about real estate development in Providence, and second place for her investigative piece, “Institutionalized in R.I.: A thousand nights stuck in a system that fails kids,” a broadcast version of which aired on Rhode Island PBS and was nominated for a regional Emmy award this year.
McGowan’s first place finishes included top News/Editorial Columnist and Sports Feature Story, while Muñoz earned first place for history journalism, focusing on the lost neighborhood of Snowtown in Providence. Fitzpatrick won first place for Community Journalism, for a story about Brown University returning land to the Pokanoket Indian tribe. Gavin won first place for tourism and spot news, while Mohammed won first place for news reporting and sports reporting.
Globe Rhode Island received 32 Rhode Island Press Association Awards in 2024, 37 awards in 2023, and 27 awards in 2022.
You can find this year’s award winning stories at Globe.com/RI.
Contact: Carla Kath, Director of Communications, [email protected]
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