We have exciting news to share. “Dumped in Berger,” a six-month investigation by The Beacon’s Ceilidh Kern and KBIA’s Harshawn Ratanpal, has won a national Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting.

The Murrow Awards are among the most prestigious honors in journalism, and we couldn’t be prouder to see this reporting recognized nationally. If you haven’t read “Dumped in Berger” yet, I don’t want to give too much away. Because part of what makes the three-part series so good is the reporting journey itself.

It starts with an EPA cost-recovery settlement and a pretty basic question. How did more than 13 million pounds of hazardous powder get trucked from Mississippi to a warehouse outside a tiny Missouri town? From there, Ceilidh and Harshawn encountered quite a cast of characters. There are small-town residents and local officials. Federal regulators. Business owners. Lawyers.

It also included people who went inside the warehouse without knowing what was stored there. And a businessman Ceilidh and Harshawn tracked down who offered to fly to Missouri with his records. He wasn’t kidding about the records. The reporters ended up with 11 pounds of three-ring binders filled with documents.

I’ll stop there because I want you to read the series.

• Part one
• Part two
• Part three

Two reporters, two newsrooms

There’s also a story behind how “Dumped in Berger” was reported.

Ceilidh was The Beacon’s Missouri statehouse reporter, and Harshawn covered environment and agriculture for KBIA. When Ceilidh started digging into the Berger story, she teamed up with Harshawn, and what followed became a six-month investigative partnership. Neither newsroom had abundant capacity to throw at a project this big on its own. Together, we could do more.

Ceilidh and Harshawn shared the reporting. The Beacon contributed Ceilidh’s time as well as editing and graphics support. KBIA brought its reporting, editing and audio expertise. The series ultimately ran in both written and audio form and reached audiences well beyond either newsroom alone.

That is a version of collaboration we care a lot about at The Beacon. Our goal has always been to be additive to the news ecosystem in Kansas and Missouri. We want more reporting to happen because The Beacon exists, not simply more reporting with our name on it.

Sometimes that means producing journalism that other news organizations can republish for free. Sometimes it means sharing resources or expertise. And sometimes it means two reporters from two newsrooms joining forces on a story that neither organization would have had the capacity to report at this depth alone. Berger is a great example of what becomes possible.

Reporting takes time

There’s one more piece of the story behind this series. Ceilidh covered the Missouri General Assembly for The Beacon. Anyone who has covered a statehouse knows what that means during the legislative session. But lawmakers eventually go home, and our statehouse reporters don’t stop being reporters when they do.

Ceilidh’s position and The Beacon’s statewide investigative and accountability reporting were supported by Arnold Ventures, which understood the value of giving a reporter time to do work that doesn’t fit neatly into a daily news cycle or legislative calendar.

That mattered here. Six months is a long time to stay with one investigation. There were hundreds of pages to read, people to find, records to track down and leads that didn’t necessarily come with an obvious payoff. That’s also how some of the best reporting gets done.

Ceilidh has since moved away from Missouri, but we’re thrilled to have another chance to celebrate the work she did at The Beacon and the partnership she and Harshawn built on this project.

“Dumped in Berger” first earned a regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting earlier this year. Now, it has nationwide recognition.

Since 1971, the Radio Television Digital News Association has been honoring outstanding work in broadcast and digital journalism with the Murrow Awards, named for the legendary CBS broadcaster. 

Congratulations to Ceilidh and Harshawn, and to our partners at KBIA. And thank you to Arnold Ventures for helping give this reporting the time it needed.

Now, seriously: go read “Dumped in Berger.”