The Wire's blog posts earns third place in SPJ Detroit awards

The award certificate for blogging I received for my writing on
The Wire.

I started blogging on Manchester more than a year ago, as a directive for work. But in that time, I've embraced the inside look at Manchester, and the time spent has earned some recognition.

I attended the annual Society of Professional Journalists Detroit Chapter banquet in Troy Wednesday night. There, I received a third place award for blogging, which was all done here on The Wire.

I submitted three posts, including my one on redistricting, and come in third. The first and second place finishers in the category, which was open to all publications in the state, were from the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press. Not bad names to be mentioned with.

Each entry was judged by non-local journalists from all over the Midwest, and each winner had comments left by them. Here's what they said about this blog:

"Veselenak's blog is a great read because it goes beyond the story, to reveal the details of 'local reporting' that used to be the grist of community journalism. It's exceptional because its so simple. Interesting stories about the community. His piece on a local candidate who failed to obtain a single vote, even her own, is great journalism because at its most basic level, is what we're here to do."

The write-up on the "local candidate who failed to obtain a single vote" is slightly misleading, as I used an example from the Flint-area as a way to show the power of the vote, not Manchester (Everyone in the village elections this time got a vote, even though there weren't that many).

Even though I'm not doing as much Manchester blogging these days, I'm still popping in and writing when something hits me as a blog post. I'm hoping to continue to find interesting tidbits that might not be story-worthy, but quick post-worthy. Thanks for reading!