Back in 2022, Magic: The Gathering, the endless card game that usually features wizards and dragons battling in high-fantasy settings, released a new set of cards called "Streets of New Capenna," which was set in a new world in the game's multiverse that was essentially 1920s America, with five demonic crime families battling for control of the city of New Capenna. All the cards had a beautiful art-deco approach to their illustrations, and the nod to the gritty mob battles of the 20s was a nice change of pace to the usual flavor of the game.

But among all the devil-mobsters, bird bootleggers and rhino thugs was a journalist, dead set on exposing the corruption of New Capenna in the form of the card Snooping Newsie. The card was designed to reflect the work of muckraking journalism: it got stronger the more cards it exposed and, if it really did the work, it brought new life to the player. Snooping Newsie was a little too finicky to be particularly useful in actual gameplay, but I was immediately hooked: I mean come on, it was a journalist in Magic: The Gathering!

I never forgot that card.

This year has been hard—perhaps the understatement of the year, I know—but one thing that has stood out to me throughout this endless struggle of a year has been the importance of small-scale, truly independent journalism to stand up for communities and to expose the abuses and corruption of the powerful. Nowhere has this work been more critical than in covering the raids of our communities by ICE and the US Border Patrol, where tiny news organizations with no budget and barely any staff have been a critical lifeline to understand the scale and impact of these attacks on our neighbors, our family, and our friends.

This year, as I was turning to tiny news orgs to find out what was happening down the street from me, I remembered that Magic: The Gathering card again, that Snooping Newsie and her dogged pursuit to expose the ills on the streets in order to bring new life to her community. It felt exactly like what was happening right now.

And so today I am thrilled to announce the inaugural recipients of the Snooping Newsie Award for Excellence in Independent Journalism. The award—which is for community-focused, independently-owned newsrooms with a staff of less than ten—is in recognition of the fearless work, commitment, and effort that goes into producing vital reporting for your community, on no budget, with no net.

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