The Flatwater Free Press has won the Nebraska Press Association’s 2026 Better Newspaper Contest, the NPA announced Saturday. Flatwater took home the inaugural top prize in a newly created division that allows Nebraska’s biggest newspapers and nonprofit newsrooms to compete for state honors.
The Lincoln Journal Star finished second in the division, the NPA announced, while the Nebraska Examiner took third.
The Flatwater win highlighted a slew of new state and national honors awarded to the newsroom’s journalists and their stories.
Flatwater reporter Jeremy Turley and reporting partner Lauren Wagner of the nonprofit education newsroom The 74 have been named finalists in the investigative reporting category of the National Awards for Education Reporting. Turley and Wagner co-reported a story revealing that Nebraska school districts frequently bar students with disabilities from transferring into their schools, while simultaneously approving the majority of transfer requests from other Nebraska students.
Earlier this week, Turley followed up with a story showing that a bill in the Nebraska Legislature attempting to change this reality for students with disabilities was gutted before it passed.
Three Flatwater reporters swept the investigative reporting category of the Nebraska Press Association awards. Chris Bowling finished first for stories on how the safety net is failing mentally ill Omahans and their families. Destiny Herbers earned the silver for “Dying Blind,” her series on Nebraska undercounting its drug deaths, and why that matters. And Emily Wolf got bronze for her story on a Lincoln man’s fight to have the Catholic Church acknowledge that he was groomed as a child.
Herbers’ “Dying Blind” also finished second in the A-Mark Awards, given to the best investigative journalism in the state of Nebraska and open to any state newspaper or nonprofit newsroom of any size. Sara Gentzler took home third in that category for her series of stories showing alleged sexual misconduct at a Kearney youth detention center. Last month, she reported that the director of the Kearney Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center had been fired by the state after more allegations emerged.
Flatwater editor Natalia Alamdari and reporters Turley and Wolf also received second prize honors in the explanatory category for their coverage of the immigration crackdown in Nebraska. Wolf additionally got second place in the features category for her story on a Lincoln bookseller making it big on Instagram.
Bowling and Turley took the top prize for having the best email newsletter in the state, which is focused on Omaha. Flatwater editor Matthew Hansen got second in that category for Flatwater’s Friday statewide newsletter.
You can sign up for one or both newsletters, which are free, here.
4 Comments
It’s pretty cool to see Flatwater getting recognized for its reporting. What topics do they usually cover to make such an impact?
Cool? Until one understands that it’s largely FFP joining a group (NPA), paying dues to that group, and then that group gives FFP some prizes based on no published criteria.
Got it?
Uh, this whole “contest” is a bit over-the-top.
According to the NPA, ONLY dues-paying members of the NPA are eligible for the Better Newspaper Contest–a contest with about 15-20 categories (with 1-2-3 prizes each)
So, FFP had to pay to play, had access to 45-60 prizes possible, chosen by NPA members! (Did FFP vote on its own stories?)
I will claim to be the Grand Prize Winner for Best Commentator in 2026, as determined by the Nebraska Online Commentator Association (NOCA) whose membership (and thus judges) is me and …
Come on FFP, this is nothing but an exclusive dues-accessed club giving its OWN members prizes, and where no one goes home without a prize.
COME ON!
I’d rather watch the Tony Awards.
I vote J. Gross to win the award for biggest FFP fan because no one else is as disturbingly emotionally enmeshed with it lmao