The Press and Journal’s data journalism team has scooped up a prestigious Future of Media award.
The awards are run by industry publication the Press Gazette.
They aim to recognise excellence in the digital media industry across the UK and further afield.
Judges recognised the team, comprised of Lesley-Anne Kelly, Emma Morrice and Ema Sabljak, for their work tracking vacancy rates across retail units in Aberdeen and Inverness city centres.
They said: “This is an example of extraordinary data gathering and reporting filling in an important knowledge gap and utilising visual tools to illustrate the extent of the problem and drive change.”
It comes just a few months after the same project was awarded an international journalism award by the World Association of News Publishers.
Head of data journalism, Lesley-Anne Kelly said: “This is by far our most painstakingly manual project, with every unit on or maps hand drawn and manually categorised.
“We aimed to highlight a data gap and use that data to push for improvements in the cities we live in, so it’s incredible to be recognised for that effort.”
As part of the High Street Tracking project, the data journalism team record changes to retail units on an almost daily basis.
They also get out on foot once per quarter to quality assure the data in Aberdeen, with the data in Inverness regularly checked by reporters in the local office.
The data is visualised using 3d building maps and charts.
Who owns Aberdeen’s Union Street?
Since launching the project, the team has built upon the initial cache of data.
They investigated property ownership records and dug into who the landlords are of the vacant units in Aberdeen’s Union Street.
Organizers held the Future of Media Awards in London on Thursday as part of the Future of Media Technology conference.
Conversation