What’s at stake?
Since 1989, the George F. Gruner Awards have recognized the best journalism in the central San Joaquin Valley.
Fresnoland reporters took home multiple honors at the 37th annual George F. Gruner Awards for the second year in a row.
Fresnoland’s 2025 awards, announced at a Fresno State ceremony April 25, include:
- First place in the best news story category for Omar S. Rashad’s examination of the finances of Valley Children’s Hospital. Rashad’s findings over the nonprofit hospital’s stagnating direct community investment despite record profits shocked ethics experts.
- Honorable mention in the best feature category for Pablo Orihuela and Rashad’s story about the clearing of a homeless encampment days before the City of Fresno’s controversial anti-encampment ordinance kicked in – and the unhoused people who have no other place to go but the streets with the city’s shortage of shelter beds.
- Honorable mention in the best writing category for Gregory Weaver’s report on a record-breaking legal settlement over TCP contamination of the San Joaquin Valley’s drinking water, and why residents may still have to foot the bill of the cleanup someday. His “superb deep-dive exemplifies how clean, precise writing can unpack and illuminate an important story,” one judge wrote.
The Gruner Awards , hosted every spring by Fresno State’s Department of Media, Communications and Journalism, has recognized the best journalism in the central San Joaquin Valley since the ceremony’s inception in 1989. The awards’ namesake, George Gruner, a former executive editor at The Fresno Bee and member of the “Fresno Four,” died last year at the age of 99.
This was Fresnoland’s second year of competition after the Gruner Awards were opened up to digital-only news teams last year.
In 2024, Fresnoland also took home multiple prizes, including the top honor in the public service category for Rashad’s investigation into the Fresno City Council’s secretive budget committee.
