Talk about a pivot to video!
Streetsblog's social media team, led by Engagement Editor Emily Lipstein, received the Deadline Club's award for digital video reporting on Thursday night.
We submitted three short reported videos in the category — "You Can Walk Faster Than This NYC Bus," "NYPD’s Illegal Parking Has Cops In Trouble With the Feds" and "Instacart Shoppers Aren’t Covered by Minimum Wage Law" (all videos embedded below).
And they were good enough to beat out the two other finalists: ABC News (national) for a video on the collateral damage of nuclear weapons development in the 1940s, and Newsday for a gripping video on Long Island's tragic history of forgotten murder victims.
The Deadline Club judges said, "Streetsblog delivered smart reporting in a format truly native to the platform, meeting audiences where they are. Their videos brought clarity and wit to complex and often overlooked issues, using TikTok and social video not just as distribution tools, but as storytelling vehicles in their own right." (That said, we do use social media as a distribution tool; subscribe today to our feeds on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.)
Virtually every bit of the credit goes to Lipstein, who joined Streetsblog less than one year ago and quickly broadened our reach. Emily directs and edits nearly all of Streetsblog's video content, and shares this award with reporters (now we're going to have to call them "the talent") Dave Colon, Sophia Lebowitz and David Meyer.
"Within mere weeks, Emily revolutionized and professionalized Streetsblog's multi-media effort, bringing out talents on the staff that more people than Deadline Club judges are appreciating. We are so proud of her," said Streetsblog Editor-in-Chief Gersh Kuntzman.
Lipstein, who also runs and monitors Streetsbog's social media feeds joked that the award "may just make all of the death threats worth it."
Streetsblog's Editor Gersh Kuntzman and Lebowitz were also nominated for Deadline Club's feature writing award for their story on the safety and moral crisis of fake chaplains, but they lost to a crackerjack feature piece by the New York Times's Matthew Haag.
This kind of reporting and video-making takes support — and we've enjoyed so much of it from our readers over the years that this award partly belongs to you, too. If you want to see more of this kind of thing, well, you know what to do. (Thanks!)
Here are our winning videos:
