Yellow Scene Magazine takes home 12 SPJ Top of the Rockies Awards, 3 First Places

Yellow Scene Magazine was incredibly honored to receive 12 Society for Professional Journalism awards in the 2024 Top of the Rockies contest. Media organizations of all sizes from across four states competed in numerous categories covering design and editorial content. The awards ceremony itself was in the iconic Denver Press Club with attendees flying in from across the country, and even one of YS’s writers from Canada was able to attend, making it an international event.

Several members of YS attended the event, with six individual people there in person to collect their awards! We are so proud of our entire team, from our hard-working interns to our journalists, writers, photographers, and editors, and especially our publisher, for continuing to fight for print media and to tell truth to power, especially when both seem to be under threat. Our dozen awards show high-quality journalism, telling compelling and relevant stories, and never compromising our editorial integrity are appreciated by our peers, and needed more than ever before.

While YS is humbled to be recognized as a leader in our field, the best moment of the night was the roaring standing ovation for Sandra Fish, a journalist for the Colorado Sun. Fish was kicked out of the Colorado Republican assembly for her reporting, in an attempt to stifle free speech and access to politicians. She was recognized with an award and the applause of her peers. As members of the press, we will always fight for free speech and support those who do the same.

YS won three first-place awards: 

• Headline Writing: “If Fascism, Racism, Sexism, and Anti-Queer rhetoric is your thing, then DeSantis is for you” by French Davis
• Feature Page Design: “Why Do You Wear What You Do?” by Austin Clinkenbeard
• Legal: News: “Crossing State Lines to Get an Abortion in Colorado” by Zoe Jennings

YS won an additional nine(!) 2nd and 3rd place awards:

• Social Justice Reporting: “Book Banning on the Rise: A look into censorship in Colorado” by Danielle MacKinlay, looked into the growing threat of censorship.
• Politics: Feature: “The World: Ukraine” by Austin Clinkenbeard was a brand new column for YS, looking abroad.
• News Reporting- Single Story: “Colorado Homeowners Are Fed Up with Metro Districts but Reforms Are Hard to Come By” by Robert Davis, our housing and development expert.
• Feature: Long form: “Whose Land Are You Really On?” by Austin Clinkenbeard about the long history of indigenous peoples in our area.
• Enterprise Reporting: “The Dacono Files” by Robert Davis investigated the corruption, ethics violations, and behind-the-scenes deals on Dacono’s city council.
• Columns/Op Ed pieces: “There’s a Weapon on Campus” by Steve Nelson about the harrowing text no parent ever wants to receive.
• Climate Reporting: “A Wildfire Sheds Light” by Carolyn Elerding on how mutual aid is the best defense for increasingly strong climate disasters
• Climate Reporting: “Drought, Famine, Overpopulation, and a Lack of Water: What the Puebloans and the Colorado River Can Teach Us” by Austin Clinkenbeard, with YS nearly sweeping the Climate Reporting category!
• Ag and Environment: News: “A layered approach: Boulder’s efforts against oil and gas drilling, climate disasters in a warming world” by Natalie Kerr, in one of her first-ever articles for us!

YS staff is especially proud of our win for Best Feature Page Design which was awarded to the author but was truly a team effort. The photoshoot turned out incredible and our graphics team turned photographer Dustin Doskocil’s stunning images into an award-winning layout. It’s not just that photoshoot we are proud of, but an incident that happened about a month later as our publisher and her intern were out talking to local businesses and community members around town with the newly printed magazine. 

During a sales chat, one man opened the magazine, turned to the photoshoot, and quickly shut down both the magazine and the conversation. His reaction was confusing, but our intern noted that he seemed to dislike the images of all Black professionals that we had featured. His reaction only highlights the need for more voices, more people, and more communities to be uplifted and given the spotlight. Hate has no home here.

We want to thank the SPJ, the Denver Press Club, and all of our readers who inspire us to keep creating independent, engaging, no-B.S. content. See you there next year!