AARP, National Press Foundation Announce Awards for Journalism on Aging

Journalists from The Washington Post and television station KGTV in San Diego were named winners Monday of the National Press Foundation’s 2024 AARP Awards for Excellence in Journalism on Aging.

This is the second year the two organizations have hosted this award, which recognizes the country’s best reporting on issues important to people 50 and older. Each award includes a $5,000 prize.

“With people living longer than ever, we created this award to encourage in-depth journalism about the challenges and opportunities they face,” said Martha Boudreau, executive vice president and chief communications and marketing officer at AARP.

In the large media category, the Post’s Christopher Rowland, Douglas MacMillan, Peter Whoriskey, Todd Frankel, Yeganeh Torbati, Julie Zauzmer Weil and Steven Rich won the prize for their Memory Inc. series, which investigates the state of U.S. assisted living facilities. The team uncovered dozens of cases of wandering residents that resulted in deaths.

“Not only is the narrative haunting, but the videos are chilling and cannot be unseen,” the judges said in a statement. “It is a reminder why the full digital package – reporting, writing, legal work and security video cameras — is critical to impact and effective storytelling.”

The Memory Inc. series also exposed the industry’s inadequate regulation and oversight, its chronic understaffing of facilities and its growing reliance on profit-focused real estate investors.   

In the small/regional category, where entrants must have fewer than 15 million monthly website ­visitors, reporters Adam Racusin, Raymond Higgins, Adam Hillberry and Steve Reusch of KGTV won for their Cost of Care series, which explores the financial and emotional toll of dementia care in the U.S. and San Diego. The team investigated the topic for 18 months to produce a collection of video stories that led lawmakers to action.

“The [reporters] went beyond family members, policymakers, advocates and experts to even interview some of the very people sliding into Alzheimer’s,” the judges said. “The interviews are some of the strongest I have watched. It is clear the [reporters] established deep trust with [their] subjects and spent considerable time on these pieces.”

The judges also gave an honorable mention to Rose Lundy of The Maine Monitor for her series with nonprofit news organization ProPublica, which revealed hundreds of violations by state residential care facilities, but hardly any sanctions.