AL.com today received three National Headliner awards, including for reporting on Alabama’s broken parole system, for a national examination of rising ocean temperatures and for covering a stunning Alabama Supreme Court ruling that temporarily halted in-vitro fertilization.

The Press Club of Atlantic City today awarded AL.com two first place prizes and a second place award for reporting published in 2024.

Ivana Hrynkiw, an investigative reporter at AL.com won first place for online investigative reporting on a local issue. That award was for her series Denied: Alabama’s broken parole system.

“Her reporting led to rare, rapid reforms without a court order, proving the power of journalism to drive change,” contest judges wrote.

Hrynkiw’s reporting found that Alabama in 2017 paroled most prisoners who were eligible. But under new leadership, paroles fell to just 8% by 2023. That’s despite the parole board’s own guidelines suggesting more than 80% of prisoners should qualify for a second chance.

The parole rate rose to 20% the month after the first article, and finished 2024 at 20%, according to state data. That comes out to roughly 250 more people getting out of prison last year than in 2023.

Lawmakers also held hearings and demanded answers, as prisoners featured on AL.com found lawyers or got new hearings that resulted in their release.

AL.com also won first place for environmental writing by an individual or team not in a top 20 media market. That award recognized In Hot Water, a series by AL.com, MLive in Michigan, NJ Advance Media in New Jersey and The Oregonian/OregonLive in Oregon.

The four newsrooms worked together to document how warming waters are scrambling coastal species and life in the Great Lakes. In Alabama, environmental reporter Dennis Pillion reported that fishermen are now reeling in tropical fish like snook, as sportfish competitions have added categories for colorful species that are normally found in the Florida Keys.

“This collaborative reporting combined firsthand accounts and data analysis to show how warming waters are changing lives,” contest judges wrote. “By centering those who work on the water and avoiding partisan framing, it made a complex issue accessible. The result was a deeply reported, impactful story that connected science with everyday experience.”

AL.com also won second place in the online breaking news category for coverage of the 2024 Alabama Supreme Court decision that stunned the nation, as the justice ruled that embryos are people. The ruling effectively halted IVF treatments in the state as lawmakers rushed to pass a law allowing the treatments to resume.