KYUK won 11 Alaska Press Club awards for journalism produced in 2021. The annual contest honors reporting produced by Alaskan journalists working in news outlets across the state.
KYUK’s 2021 honors include first place for Best Comprehensive Coverage of the COVID-19 Pandemic. KYUK received this award among all news outlets in Alaska.
KYUK received an additional first place, second place, and third place award for work competing across all news outlets. In the radio category, KYUK received four first place awards and three third place awards.
We share these awards with the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Every story is a collaboration between the people involved in the story, the journalist, and the audience. Quyana for supporting KYUK and for sharing your experiences, questions, insights, and stories with us.
All Media: Best Comprehensive Coverage of the COVID-19 Pandemic
- First place
- Title: How COVID-19 changed Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta
- Description: These stories explore the sprawling ways the COVID-19 pandemic affected Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. From the rise of illegal Facebook gambling, to supply chain restrictions on rural Alaskan's main winter heat source, to pandemic relief bringing broadband to a remote community for the first time, to families protesting remote schooling, and to remembering those we've lost to the coronavirus.
- Contest Judge Brian McCrone's comment: “Best example of reporters uncovering interesting stories that evolved during and due to the pandemic. The angles for these five stories were fascinating and, combined with very good reporting, worthy of top prize.”
- Stories:
- Illegal Facebook Gambling Surges During Pandemic
- Some Bethel Families Consider Moving Due To School District's COVID-19 Policies
- A 46-year-old former community health aide from Kasigluk died from COVID-19
- Toyostoves are scarce this year. That's bad news for keeping homes in rural Alaska warm
- A digital revolution arrives in rural Alaska, thanks to the pandemic
- By Greg Kim, Olivia Ebertz, Katie Basile, and Gabby Hiestand Salgado
All Media: Best Multimedia Presentation
- First place
- Title: ‘River is getting close.’ How erosion is displacing students in Napakiak
- By Greg Kim and Katie Basile
All Media: Best Online Video Journalism
- Second place
- Title: A digital revolution arrives in rural Alaska, thanks to the pandemic
- By Katie Basile, Greg Kim, and Gabby Hiestand Salgado
All Media: Best Legal Affairs Reporting
- Third place
- Title: Bethel Woman Reported She Was Raped; Months Later, She Protested Inaction By Police And Prosecutors
- By Greg Kim
Video and Radio: Best Reporting on the COVID-19 Pandemic
- First Place
- Title: After Waking From Coma, COVID-19 Survivor Returns Home To Pilot Station
- By Greg Kim
Radio: Best Reporting on Government or Politics
- First place
- Title: Nearly Half Of Bethel Police Are Unvaccinated And Live Out Of Town. They Could Lose Their Jobs.
- By Olivia Ebertz
Radio: Vern McCorkle Award for Best Business Reporting
- First place
- Title: Illegal Facebook Gambling Surges During Pandemic
- By Greg Kim
Radio: Best Profile
- First place
- Title: Remembering The One And Only Lillian Atmak Michael
- By Greg Kim
Radio: Best Reporting on Science
- Third place
- Title: Why Are The Chum Runs So Low?
- By Olivia Ebertz
Radio: Best Culture Reporting
- Third place
- Title: Bethel Koreans Seeking Second Chance At American Dream
- By Greg Kim
Radio: Best Public Safety Reporting
- Third place
- Title: 7 hunters return home after being stranded on the frozen Yukon River for 7 days. Here's their story.
- By Anna Rose MacArthur
Read the full list of the 2021 Alaska Press Club awards here.
