The State’s Bustos wins coveted political reporting honor, newsroom earns awards in annual SC contest
The State Media Co.’s Joseph Bustos has received South Carolina’s Jim Davenport Award for Excellence in Government Reporting for his work in 2022, topping a slate of more than 30 awards brought home by The State’s journalists in the annual S.C. Press Association news contest.
Bustos has covered the S.C. State House since 2019. His reporting in 2022 ranged from the race for the governor’s office to the nitty gritty of state government, including desperate efforts to stanch the state’s teacher shortage, debates over state employees’ pay, and dramatic leadership changes among lawmakers.
“Joe is very deserving of this recognition,” said Brian Tolley, president and editor of The State Media Co. “He does all the little things that make a great reporter, and we are very proud of him.”
Alongside Bustos, The State’s entire government and political reporting team, led by editor Maayan Schechter, earned first-place honors from the S.C. Press Association for overall election and political coverage in 2022.
The capital city newsroom won a total of nine first-place awards and two dozen other honors in the annual South Carolina news contest, encompassing work published from December 2021 to November 2022. The awards were announced at a banquet Friday.
First place
The State’s “Cut Off,” a groundbreaking investigative project on diabetic amputations in Columbia’s 29203 area code, won numerous first-place honors: Investigative reporting (Andrew Caplan and Gina Smith), digital project (staff), mixed-media illustration (Rachel Handley, Sohail Al-Jamea, David Newcomb).
State House and politics team — election/political coverage
Zak Koeske — government beat reporting
Chiara Eisner — profile feature writing
Travis Bland — column writing
Michael Lananna — sports enterprise reporting
Staff — newsletter, for “The State, This Week”
Second place
Robert Ariail — cartoon
Ben Portnoy — sports beat reporting, sports column writing
Eisner — series of articles
Morgan Hughes — growth and development beat reporting
Bland — obituary
Lananna — spot sports story
Tracy Glantz — personality photograph or portrait
Chris Trainor — individual use of social media
Loumay Alesali, Glantz and Kata Stevens — news video
Staff — sports page design, newspaper’s use of social media, and innovation for use of online reader polls
Third place
Caplan and Smith — Judson Chapman Award for community service, for “Cut Off”
Koeske — health beat reporting, education beat reporting
Hughes — news feature writing, lifestyle feature writing
Augusta Stone — sports enterprise reporting
Glantz — sports feature photo, feature video
Staff — breaking news reporting, website
