INDY staff will take home 11 awards  in the North Carolina Press Association’s (NCPA) contest, which this year spanned April 2025 to March 2026 and recognizes “excellence in news, photojournalism, and advertising coverage” across the state.

The INDY submitted in the “B” division, which includes print and digital subscribers. The Assembly network at large won 39 NCPA awards. 

The NCPA’s annual contest is a state journalism tradition—a chance to celebrate our talented, hardworking staff and also to take the long view of our work.This year, we received awards for reporting that touched on everything from public education and police misconduct to a record-breaking mixed drink and the legacy of a local LGBTQ advocate and artist. 

“WRAL-TV Fights to Succeed in a New Media World,” Report for America fellow Chloe Courtney Bohl’s monthslong deep dive into the changing mores of a local media dynasty, placed first in Business Writing. 

With a submission package that included a pensive feature on a local food writer, reporting on a heated lawsuit around nut butter trademark infringement, and on-the-scene coverage of a quest to break the Guinness World record (Headline: A Private Investigator, 34 Texans, and an $8,887 Bloody Mary Walk Into a Holly Springs Bar”), staff writer Lena Geller’s food coverage bagged first place in Beat Feature Reporting. 

Culture Editor Sarah Edwards’s stories on the Eno River as a muse for local artist Sylvia Heyden, the life of the late artist Allan Troxler, and North Carolina’s historic influence on modernist architecture placed first in the Arts and Entertainment Reporting category. 

Former INDY reporter Chase Pellegrini de Paur, who left the INDY earlier this summer to join the D.C.-based newsroom NOTUS, placed first in Education Reporting for a package on a tumultuous year in Durham Public Schools. His stories, across many late night school board meetings, followed budget crises, widespread repair needs, immigration enforcement policies, and the historic passage of the state’s first meet-and-confer policy. 

Sarah Edwards took first place in Profile Writing for her intimate, perceptive look at the various versions of North Carolina singer Tift Merritt on the occasion of the 20th anniversary reissue of Merritt’s debut album, Bramble Rose.    

Chase Pellegrini de Paur and Chloe Courtney Bohl’s dynamic reporting package on the 4th Congressional District election between Nida Allam and incumbent Rep. Valerie Foushee—a showdown that drew national attention, and a large amount of outside funding—placed second in Election/Political Reporting. 

Creative Director Nicole Moore’s eye for design graces many of the stories in the Assembly network that readers see; this year, she was recognized in the Illustration/Photo Illustration/Print or Interactive Graphics category, placing second for her illustration on a power grab at the Durham County Board of Elections. 

“We Gave Them a Pledge to Never Forget,” Wake County Editor Jane Porter’s haunting story on drastic federal funding cuts to the World Trade Center Health Program—which provides health care to 2,000 North Carolina 9/11 responders—placed third in Enterprise Reporting. 

Porter also placed third in Beat News Reporting for her reporting on Raleigh law enforcement. Her stories covered the release of footage, following a petition by media outlets including the INDY and Assembly, showing that a state trooper and his supervisor lied  about a 2024 police chase that left 31-year-old Tyrone Mason dead. A flawed investigation by the Raleigh Police Department followed the crash. A second story reported on court filings alleging that a fired Raleigh PD officer had conducted illegal searches. 

Lena Geller’s two-story report on Yes for Durham, a shadowy, new-to-the-scene 501(c)(4) that cropped up shortly before Durham elections and turned out to have ties to one of the candidates it endorsed, placed third in Investigative Reporting. 

Finally, Chloe Courtney Bohl has spent the last two years enmeshed in dogged reporting on the demise of Saint Augustine’s University; her series on that university, as well as issues at Meredith College, placed third for the Duke University/Green-Rossiter Award for Distinguished Newspaper Work in Higher Education Reporting. 

The NCPA awards ceremony will be held in Cary on Thursday, September 10. 

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