“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with others.”
(William Arthur Ward – 20th Century author)
When Denise Anne Duffield and I unveiled EnviroReporter.com in late May 2006, we had little idea of the effect that this website would have on the environmental issues we have reported on and continue to investigate and illuminate. We did know that we cared about others and our planet so our focus on environmental issues came naturally.
No small amount of daring has been required to pursue these issues in the face of powers that care more about their pocketbooks than the public’s right to protection from pollution. The third leg of this endeavor — sharing with others — has been a fruitful endeavor for EnviroReporter.com as we have accomplished much and have been amply acknowledged for it.
In our third year, we won the Online Journalist of the Year award at the 50th Annual Southern California Journalism Awards of the Los Angeles Press Club for our continuing investigation of the biomedical nuclear and chemical dump that lies partly underneath a dog park in upscale Brentwood California. The judges said “The amount of supplementary material and the detailed analysis of supporting documents were astounding. Aided by forceful and effective writing, Collins and Duffield presented a comprehensive exploration of a local issue with national significance.”
The year before, Denise Anne and I won First Place for Online News story, Feature, Series or Package from the Los Angeles Press Club for our initial exposé of the same Brentwood nuclear dump on Veterans Administration property, coverage of which helped derail the Bush Administration’s $4 billion plans to develop this invaluable land that was granted to Veterans in perpetuity in 1888. The judges commented “Investigative journalism at its best. A true public service. The level of research and the presentation of the information is deeply compelling and intelligently mapped out. This is what journalism, in any form, is all about. You scooped everybody.”
We have also won several other awards for EnviroReporter.com since its inception for design, layout and investigative series. Our accolades include several prestigious print prizes including last year’s First Place for News Feature for the venerable Ventura County Reporter and, in 2007, Journalist of the Year (Print under 100K circulation) for the now-shuttered Los Angeles CityBeat.
Denise Anne and I were saddened when CityBeat shuttered, having had the pleasure of working for the paper with such fine editors as Steve Appleford and Dean Kuipers, who were kind enough to attend a 2007 birthday celebration of mine where I was awarded a Resolution from the Board of Supervisors of Ventura County. EnviroReporter.com started in conjunction with CityBeat with our cover story “Real Hot Property” which hit the newspaper racks and computer screens May 18, 2006. That continuing exposé caused quite a stir as EnviroReporter.com’s YouTube channel shows.
CityBeat and EnviroReporter.com forged an alternative press/new media partnership in breaking many environmental stories, a tradition that has continued into our third year with the venerable LA Weekly and one of our favorite editors, the feisty and fun Jill Stewart. Year Four for our website will see greatly expanded coverage of the issues we’ve uncovered as well as the debut of some sizzling stories in conjunction with the Weekly and other regional and national publications.
There would be no EnviroReporter.com without its fabulous designer and editor, Denise Anne Duffield. I am beyond fortunate to be able to report that when I asked the fair Denise Anne for her hand in marriage, she answered with a resounding “YES!” No greater prize could a man have than the devotion, friendship and passion of a woman so lovely and exemplary as the caring, daring and sharing Denise Anne. I am blessed.
And we are blessed to have readers like you visit EnviroReporter.com and see how we are creating a new paradigm for investigative journalism where the technological promise of the Internet is melded with hardcore, gumshoe reporting that discovers, explores and exposes issues Americans care about most. Partnering with print media provides that one-two punch missing from so much new media today that is oft-times is too heavy on blogged opinion and too light on facts and the material to back them up. And unlike much of the so-called “old media,” and even “new media,” investigative journalism is alive and well at EnviroReporter.com as we redefine the possibilities and unlimited vistas of this kind of in-depth reporting.
EnviroReporter.com will continue to expand and excite during its fourth year. We will soon debut Version II of this website which will have all the robust multimedia features that one should expect from an award-winning designer as talented as Denise Anne. She puts the “hot” in our logo “Hot News. Real Hot News.”
Furthermore, we will unveil a new website later this year that will be literally ‘out of this world.’ This venture will expand astronomically on what we have explored in a fresh and exciting endeavor that will entertain, provoke and titillate.
We highly value your continued interest in the environmental issues that we have covered and will cover. We pledge to you to continue to do this work with the utmost vigor and vitality, backed up by the facts and journalistic expertise we have shown you for the last three years online and many more in print. Thank you for visiting EnviroReporter.com.
Michael Collins
Read last year’s “Ten Years After – Two Years On” celebrating EnviroReporter.com‘s second anniversary.
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