USA TODAY Wins 2013 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award For Investigative Multimedia Reporting

Ghost Factories Report Uncovered Health Hazards Across the Country

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Dec 19, 2012, 03:48 ET

MCLEAN, Va., Dec. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- USA TODAY, a multi-platform news and information company, has won the 2013 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award for investigative multimedia reporting. The winning entry was for USA TODAY's Ghost Factories report that uncovered hundreds of forgotten lead factories across the country and the health hazards they left behind. The award was announced today by Columbia Journalism School.

Ghost Factories was an extensive multimedia series that was reported by a team of USA TODAY reporters and editors working with database, design, digital and visual experts. It included an online interactive that gives users detailed findings about more than 230 factory sites, including historical maps documenting the factories in operation and interactive maps allowing anyone to examine more than 1,000 soil samples gathered by USA TODAY in 21 neighborhoods across the country. The first installment in the series ran in April 2012 and all the stories can be seen online at ghostfactories.usatoday.com.

The reporting and editing team was led by reporters Alison Young and Peter Eisler and investigative managing editor, John Hillkirk as well as several dozen database, digital and video journalists.

"We are so proud of the work the USA TODAY investigative team did on the Ghost Factories series and it is an honor to be recognized and receive our first DuPont Award for it. This report was a true team effort between the investigative and database teams along with our digital and video journalists who worked on the story for months. USA TODAY is committed to powerful visual storytelling and this kind of investigative multimedia reporting is a perfect example of that," said Dave Callaway, editor-in-chief of USA TODAY.

USA TODAY is a multi-platform news and information media company. Founded in 1982, USA TODAY's mission is to serve as a forum for better understanding and unity to help make the USA truly one nation. Through its unique visual storytelling, USA TODAY delivers high-quality and engaging content across print, digital, social and video platforms. An innovator of news and information, USA TODAY reflects the pulse of the nation and serves as the host of the American conversation – today, tomorrow and for decades to follow. USA TODAY, the nation's number one newspaper in print circulation with an average of nearly 1.8 million daily, and USATODAY.com, an award-winning newspaper website launched in 1995, reach a combined 6.6 million readers daily. USA TODAY is a leader in mobile applications with more than 16 million downloads on mobile devices. USA TODAY is owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI).

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