The Ark wins 28 California Journalism Awards, most-decorated small publication of 2024

First place, photojournalism: The Ark won first place based on images captured by contributing photographers Leo Leung, Clara Lu, Ted McDonnell and Nick Shorten Jr. along with Friedland and Martinez.

The Ark is the California News Publishers Association’s most-decorated small publication of 2024, winning 28 California Journalism Awards for its coverage of the Tiburon Peninsula, including five first-place honors for breaking news, writing, photojournalism and feature photo, with a category sweep for travel writing as well as recognition for public-service journalism.

The awards were announced by the 137-year-old nonprofit trade association, which represents more than 700 newspapers across the state, at its annual conference May 17 in Universal City and online over several days following.

The Ark, which has about 2,500 subscribers, generally competes against other printed weeklies with a circulation of 4,300 or fewer that publish three or fewer times a week. As of last year, it also now competes against online publications with 199,000 or fewer unique monthly visitors, where The Ark averages about 5,500.

• Breaking news: Executive Editor Kevin Hessel and former Belvedere reporter Naomi Friedland won first and second. The first-place award was for their coverage of December’s tsunami warning, when local disaster authorities were largely quiet as they relied on AlertMarin to warn residents — even though only a third are signed up and, for those who are, the system suffered significant notification delays.

The second-place award was for their coverage of the community’s efforts to find a young Tiburon girl who went missing for three days in May 2024 and was found safe by police in Sacramento.

• Writing: Hessel and Tiburon reporter Francisco Martinez won first place for their article about the owners of the Mallard Point complex in Belvedere revealing a 70-unit redevelopment alternative in case their 40-unit plan was required to undergo costly environmental review. The smaller plan was ultimately found exempt and approved.

• Photojournalism: The Ark won first place based on images captured by contributing photographers Leo Leung, Clara Lu, Ted McDonnell and Nick Shorten Jr. along with Friedland and Martinez.

First place, feature photo: Jennifer Torres, 33, the owner of The Candy Store on Main Street, stands at the counter of her downtown Tiburon shop on April 18. She says a base rent hike and a new monthly maintenance fee will increase her rent by more than 60%, forcing her to close the business after 27 years. (Ted McDonnell / For The Ark)

• Feature photo: McDonnell also won first place for his image of Jennifer Torres at the counter of The Candy Store on Main Street in the final days before she closed her shop due to rent increases.

• Tourism and travel writing and reporting: The Ark’s Travel Bug, longtime contributor Marybeth Bond-Sheppard, swept the category with first place for her article on traveling to Grand County in the Rocky Mountains, second for an island-hopping cruise to Greece and third for a local getaway to a Sonoma spa.

• Profile story: Martinez won second place for his article on Strawberry dancer Mark Ellis, the founder and chief instructor of Salsa Marin Dance Academy in San Rafael.

Friedland won fourth for her story on Tiburon residents Suki and Katya Skye, who opened Eastern European restaurant Dacha Kitchen & Bar in San Francisco as a haven for the LGBTQ+ community.

• Coverage of business and the economy: Friedland also won third for her story on the Skyes’ restaurant.

• Feature story: Friedland won second place for her article on Tiburon neighbors uniting to find a lost dog using unique methods of a recovery specialist.

• Community calendar: Calendar and copy editor Diana Goodman won second for best community calendar in the ArkBeat section.

• Election reporting: Hessel, Martinez and Friedland won third place for their coverage of the November election results.

• Print special section: The Ark won third place for its fall Home edition, produced by Assistant Editor Emily Lavin with articles by Lavin and contributors Lisa Amin Gulezian and Diane Lynch, plus photography by Lynch and Leung and design by Hessel.

• Print inside page layout and design, informational graphic, print front page layout and design and print special-section cover: Hessel won several design awards, including second, third and fifth place for inside page design; second and third place for informational graphics for, respectively, a map of Tiburon apartment owners’ common property that was accidentally auctioned off by the county and for a chart showing the racial disparities in detentions by the Tiburon Police Department; third place for front-page design; and third place for special section cover.

• Public-service journalism: Martinez won fourth place for his coverage of the Trust for Public Land’s $42.1-million fundraising effort to purchase the 110-acre Martha Co. property and transfer it to Marin County for annexation into the Old St. Hilary’s Open Space Preserve as Easton Point.

“We would not be here without the accurate, timely, and excellent reporting of Ark reporter Francisco Martinez,” the trust’s California director of philanthropy and its senior project manager wrote in a letter to The Ark. “With each new development, Francisco researched and reported to the Tiburon community, deftly handling the nuances of a complex project and often inspiring external partners and donors to get involved and/or redouble their efforts.”

• Coverage of local government: Martinez and Hessel won fourth place for their article on a group of Circle Drive apartment owners fighting to regain ownership of their shared pools, recreation area and laundry facilities after the county mistakenly sold it against “unpaid” tax bills that weren’t actually due.

• Coverage of Youth and Education: Martinez won fourth place for his article on Tiburon teen Peter Dachtler, who graduated from Redwood High School and College of Marin in a three-week span.

• Fine arts writing and reporting: Contributor Michele Caprario won fifth place for her article on former Tiburon resident Elaine Lang Ockner’s 40-year effort to bring musical biography “The Divine Sarah,” about actress Sarah Bernhardt, to the stage.

Fifth place, artistic photo: Racoon Strait, Angel Island and the San Francisco skyline are part of the views from Easton Point, 110 acres newly annexed to the Old St. Hilary's Open Space Preserve. (Leo Leung / For The Ark)

• Artistic photo: Leung won fifth place for his panoramic image of the Easton Point annex to the Old St. Hilary’s Open Space Preserve when Marin County took ownership.

• Photo story or essay: Leung and McDonnell also shared fifth for their images covering a weekend of winter holiday events in November.