Tag: BirminghamWatch
BW’s Natta Named to Leadership Birmingham
André Natta, executive director of the Alabama Initiative for Independent Journalism, is among 59 leaders named to Leadership Birmingham’s Class of 2025. Read more.
BW’s Crenshaw Recognized With NFPW National Awards
Solomon Crenshaw Jr., a regular writer for BirminghamWatch, recently won a third-place award and honorable mention in the National Federation of Press Women’s Communicator’s Awards for two of his BirminghamWatch pieces, along with a first-place award for a story published by the Bending the Arc Project. Read more.
BW’s Solomon Crenshaw Jr. Takes Firsts in State Journalism Contest
Writer Solomon Crenshaw Jr. recently was given top state awards for two stories published by BirminghamWatch and was named the sweepstakes winner for his cumulative performance in this year’s contest.
Crenshaw won first place in the Alabama Media Professionals’ 2024 Communications Contest Award in the Specialty Articles – Government and Politics category with his story ”Sylvia Swayne Bucks Customs in House District 55 Runoff Race.”
A judge in that category said of Crenshaw’s story, “Good planning and organization; excellent use of quotes; demonstrates knowledge of government/political journalism.”
He also won first place in the contest’s Web and Social Media – Video for Web – Web Reporting, Single News or Feature Story category for his slideshow, “An Ode to Steve Ammons.”
A judge in that contest wrote, “This is a very sweet angle to what may have otherwise been considered a run-of-the-mill official departure story. Great idea setting this poem to a gallery of moving photos – this is truly going the extra mile.”
He also won five other first-place awards: Read more.
BW’s Solomon Crenshaw Jr. Takes Firsts in State Journalism Contest
Writer Solomon Crenshaw Jr. recently was given top state awards for two stories published by BirminghamWatch and was named the sweepstakes winner for his cumulative performance in this year’s contest.
Crenshaw won first place in the Alabama Media Professionals’ 2024 Communications Contest Award in the Specialty Articles – Government and Politics category with his story ”Sylvia Swayne Bucks Customs in House District 55 Runoff Race.”
He also won first place in the contest’s Web and Social Media – Video for Web – Web Reporting, Single News or Feature Story category for his slideshow, “An Ode to Steve Ammons.”
He also won five other first-place awards. : Read more.
AIIJ Announces New Executive Director, Board Members
The Alabama Initiative for Independent Journalism has hired André Natta as executive director this month, marking a new investment in the nonprofit news organization that has published BirminghamWatch since 2015. Read more.
Lifelong Journalist and BirminghamWatch Founder Carol Nunnelley Dies
Carol Nunnelley, founding executive director of the Alabama Initiative for Independent Journalism, died Dec. 3 after a long illness.
Her more than 50-year career as a journalist led to many important initiatives, both locally and nationally.
Nunnelley began her career as a reporter at The Birmingham News in 1966, when women were still something of an oddity in newsrooms. Read more.
Foundations, Individuals Support Public Service Journalism
AIIJ Announces Retirement of Founding Executive Director Carol Nunnelley
The Alabama Initiative for Independent Journalism has announced the retirement of Carol Nunnelley, founding executive director of the organization. Nunnelley joined Jerry Lanning and Mark Kelly to found AIIJ in 2014 and became its first executive director in 2015.
Nunnelley led AIIJ through the creation of its publishing arm, BirminghamWatch, and fostered steady growth in reporting and readership. Key projects included nonpartisan voter guides for local elections and a series on the Legacy of Race. Read more.
Welcome NewsMatch 2019, National Gift-Matching Campaign for Nonprofit Newsrooms
NewsMatch 2017 Raises $4.8M+ in Donations for Nonprofit News
NewsMatch 2017 raised more than $4.8 million from individual donors and a coalition of foundations to support more than 100 local and investigative nonprofit news organizations, including Alabama Initiative for Independent Journalism, which publishes BirminghamWatch.
According to a report from the Institute for Nonprofit News, this makes NewsMatch 2017 the largest-ever grassroots fundraising campaign to support local nonprofit and investigative news.
More than 80 individual donors supported AIIJ/BirminghamWatch during the October-December campaign, the highest number in the organization’s two-year history. These local contributors gave more than $20,000 that is being matched by national foundations to support the organization’s mission of public service journalism on the environment, education, the economy and government for Birmingham and Alabama. Read more.
