By: Agrippina Fadel
The Florida Press Club has once again recognized Talk Media, earning the publication first and third place in the community news category.
Held on January 14 at Daytona Beach, the event honored the hard work and dedication of journalists covering news across Florida.
Talk Media’s Sharon Aron Baron took home first place in the Writing, Community News, Class B-C for her expose about an alleged Parkland Ponzi schemer.
In Parkland Man Operates a Multi-Million Dollar Ponzi Scheme Alleges Attorneys, Victims, the investigative piece details how a resident financed his lavish lifestyle on the backs of unsuspecting investors, promising high returns on investments, ultimately giving excuses, even bouncing checks when victims tried to cash out.
A Florida Press Club judge commented, “A well-reported and detailed investigation of a con artist.”
Kevin Deutsch placed third in the same category for his story “About Damn Time:” Lynching Victim Rubin Stacy Honored After Vice Mayor’s Advocacy. The story was about Parkland vice mayor and attorney Ken Cutler’s research into Rubin Stacy’s life and efforts in educating local politicians about his lynching in 1935 by a mob of white vigilantes, laying the groundwork for a street named in his honor.
A Florida Press Club judge commented, “A sad but important forgotten history lesson.”
The Sun Sentinel’s series “Crying out for Help” earned the Club’s Frances DeVore Award, which came with a $1,000 prize. The series chronicled how the paper discovered how thousands of calls to Broward County’s emergency dispatch went unanswered, sometimes with devastating results.
The winner of the Lucy Morgan Award for In-Depth Reporting went to the Florida Times-Union for its coverage of federal indictments in the attempted sale of Jacksonville’s public utility. The paper detailed the utility’s executives’ scheme to secretly extract tens of millions of dollars of personal profit out of the city-owned utility before selling it off to a private operator.
Created in 2010, Talk Media includes five news sites; Tamarac Talk, Coral Springs Talk, Parkland Talk, Margate Talk, and Coconut Creek Talk. The locally-based publications are overseen by Baron and include the work of seven contributing writers.
Talk Media has a combined following of over 80,000 on Facebook, 32,000 on Twitter, and 23,000 on Instagram. The sites receive 800k – one million monthly hits. In 2022, data shows Talk Media received over 13 million page views.
For nearly 70 years, the Florida Press Club, currently led by Anne Geggis of Florida Politics, has honored the best in Florida journalism, recognizing excellence in layout, photography, and writing. Originally called the Florida Women’s Press Club, it has since expanded to include men’s and digital-only publications. The Florida Press Club is a nonprofit organization of writers, editors, photographers, graphic artists, researchers, librarians, and support technicians working for Florida news organizations.
In addition to Baron and Deutsch’s wins, in 2021, Talk Media also took home two awards in Online, Independent News Site, Class A-C, and Writing, Community News, Class C.
Send your news to Parkland’s #1 Award-Winning News Source, Parkland Talk. Don’t miss reading Tamarac Talk, Coral Springs Talk, Coconut Creek Talk, and Margate Talk.
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