The LION Publishers Summit in St. Louis this month was one of two conferences where EPLN received recognition in national journalism contests. Photo courtesy of LION INSS and Fig Media
Eden Prairie Local News (EPLN) was named a finalist in national journalism awards this month, with staff attending conferences in St. Louis and New Orleans.
Managing editor Joanna Werch Takes traveled to the Sept. 3-5 LION Publishers Independent News Sustainability Summit in St. Louis, where EPLN was a finalist in the micro/small revenue tier for the Financial Health Award.
The award recognizes a LION member that has made significant progress toward strengthening its financial health. The micro/small revenue tier is for organizations with annual revenue of less than $500,000.
EPLN was recognized for following a plan initiated during a 2024 LION Sustainability Audit. The plan included clarifying goals through survey data, internal discussions and experiments. Donations and subscriptions rose 55% in the first eight months of fiscal year 2025, and at the time of the entry’s submission, revenue had doubled from the previous fiscal year.
Judges’ comments, provided anonymously, included: “The entry shows growing financial sophistication, a smart focus on understanding and reflecting the changing nature of Minnesota’s southwest suburbs, and real growth towards long-term sustainability.”
The Nonprofit News Awards, a program of the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), were announced at a ceremony during the Sept. 10-13 Online News Association (ONA) Conference in New Orleans.
From left: Joanna Werch Takes, Brianna Collett and Amy Nylander produce EPLN’s Prairie Pulse events newsletter. Photo by Hayden Koughan
EPLN general assignment reporter Rachel Hoppe and schools reporter Maddie Robinson attended the event, where EPLN was a finalist in the INNovator Award and Explanatory Journalism categories.
The EPLN Prairie Pulse events newsletter and its team – Joanna Werch Takes, Brianna Collett and Amy Nylander – was a finalist in the INNovator Award category, which recognizes organizations that produce innovative ideas or practices to help newsrooms serve their communities into the future.
Launched in March 2025, the Prairie Pulse events newsletter is emailed Thursdays with highlights of local events and things to do for the upcoming weekend and following week.
Anonymous judges’ comments called the newsletter “a strong example of audience-first thinking, executed with clarity and care” and stated, “The conversational tone of the newsletter feels genuinely inviting.”
A story on how Eden Prairie has preserved lakeshores, including Staring Lake, shown here at sunrise, was a national awards finalist. File photo by Mark Weber
EPLN was also a finalist in the Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism category of the Nonprofit News Awards. The entry, “Preserving Eden Prairie Lakeshores, Past and Present,” consisted of Mark A. Weber’s November 2024 story, “How Eden Prairie preserved miles of shoreline: A legacy of grants, plans, and development fees,” and Kelley Regan’s August 2024 story column, “Lakeshore owners play key role in lake health.”
Judges’ comments for the lakeshores entry praised Weber’s piece as “exquisitely written,” with “lots of great detail,” and called Regan’s column focusing on individual homeowners “a great complement.”
Weber’s piece, a judge said, “not only preserves an important history that might otherwise be lost, it fosters an appreciation for the often unglamorous task of long-range planning, the benefits of which may only become fully apparent generations later … Honestly, I want to move to Eden Prairie.”
In both categories of the Nonprofit News Awards, EPLN was recognized in the micro division for organizations with annual expenses of $250,000 or less. The 2025 contest received nearly 600 entries.