SALT LAKE CITY, UT — Monday, Nov. 21, 2022 — The Great Salt Lake Collaborative, a coalition of 23 news and education partners covering challenges facing the Great Salt Lake, took home the top prize of $20,000 in the national “Local that Works” contest.
“Local that Works” is a project of Current, a nonprofit news organization that covers public media for industry professionals. Finalists were chosen from a pool of 96 public broadcasters, nonprofit newsrooms and other media groups.
“The Great Salt Lake Collaborative is thrilled to be recognized on a national stage for the important work we are doing in Utah,” said Heather May, project manager for the collaborative. “This win validates our unique approach to focus on collaboration, engagement and solutions journalism. Instead of competing, the state’s diverse newsrooms are cooperating to cover an existential environmental crisis, the shrinking Great Salt Lake. By partnering with scientists, artists, librarians and other community organizations, the collaborative ensures the public is at the heart of what we do. And we investigate potential solutions to the overconsumption of water that has led to the crisis facing the Great Salt Lake.”
Since its inception in January 2022, the Great Salt Lake Collaborative has produced approximately 150 stories about the Great Salt Lake’s diminishing water levels and solutions for minimizing the crisis. Media partners include UPR-Utah Public Radio ,Amplify Utah, City Cast Salt Lake, Deseret News, Fox 13, KCPW, KSL.com, KSL NewsRadio, KSL-TV, KRCL, KUER, Salt Lake Tribune, Standard-Examiner, and The West View.
As part of the collaborative UPR has produced and distributed Lake Effect, a series of stories highlighting relationships with Utah’s inland sea. UPR news director Sheri Quinn traveled to Nevada with collaborative partner Ben Winslow of Fox 13 News to report on ways the nation’s driest state is coping during a drought. Their solutions journalism stories can be found here.
“Finding and sharing solutions through a network like this is impactful," said Kerry Bringhurst, UPR co-manager. "We look forward to continued growth as a collaborative, and appreciate the opportunity of being a media partner.”
Support for the Great Salt Lake Collaborative comes from the Solutions Journalism Network and the Knight Foundation.
