By: Sharon Aron Baron
Parkland Talk took home two awards at the Florida Press Club event in January.
Sportswriter Matt Rothman won first place for Online, Independent News Site, Class A-C., and Contributor Selene Raj won 2nd Place Writing, Community News, Class C.
The awards were for articles published between June 1, 2020, and May 31, 2021.
For nearly 70 years, the Florida Press Club has been honoring the best in Florida journalism, from layout to photography to writing. Originally called the Florida Women’s Press Club, as no other clubs allowed women to compete, it has expanded to include men and digital-only publications.
Winning top honors was the Florida Times-Union. The newspaper and reporters Nate Monroe, David Bauerlein, Christopher Hong, and Mark Woods won the Frances DeVore Award for Public Service and the Lucy Morgan Award for In-Depth Reporting for their year-long investigative series about the secret deal and the public collapse of an effort to privatize the country’s eighth-largest community-owned utility, JEA. The articles included dozens of interviews with people across city government and the private sector involved in the ultimately canceled sale.
Based in Coral Springs, Talk Media was created in 2010 with The Woodlands and expanded to include Tamarac Talk in 2011, Coral Springs Talk in 2012, Parkland Talk in 2017, and in 2022 added Margate Talk.
The online publications receive 500,000 – 1 million monthly hits and have 70,000 Facebook and 32,000 Twitter followers.
“Coral Springs Talk and other media (Tamarac Talk and Parkland Talk) do a very good job at keeping the community well informed about current events, neighborhood crime, etc.,” said Gavin P. in a survey of readers.
Others love having that information available to them at their fingertips.
“I absolutely love being able to open Facebook and read about what’s going on in my city,” said Jana B. “Local news stations tend to focus on Miami.”
In 2021 Coral Springs Talk received a proclamation from the City of Coral Springs requested by Commissioner Joy Carter, who credited the online news source for supporting residents like Frank Molino, who needed a kidney.
“One of their impressive stories — and they’ve had many — was they assisted a city employee who desperately needed a transplant. With the story they published, they helped him get a new kidney,” said Carter.
In 2020, Talk Media earned First Place for Independent News Website.
Send your news to Parkland’s #1 news source, Parkland Talk.