The Molokai Dispatch Wins 5 Awards

The Molokai Dispatch News Release

The Molokai Dispatch is honored to have won five Excellence in Journalism awards for its news coverage in 2023. The awards are held annually by the Society of Professional Journalism (SPJ) Hawaii Chapter and presented in newspaper, TV, radio and magazine categories. This year was the first time that the SPJ has combined all newspapers into the same category, rather than separating weekly and daily papers. Winners for 2023 were announced at an awards dinner last week in Honolulu.
Marissa Motas, the Molokai Dispatch’s graphic designer, was awarded second and third place in the News Page Design category for all newspapers statewide for her layouts of “Makahiki Worth the Wait” and “2023 Year in Review: January – June.”
Jack Kiyonaga, editor of the Dispatch, won two second places. The first came in in the overall newspaper category for General News, for his article “Last of the Librarians? Let’s Hope Not.” The second was in the Community Reporting category for the article “Can Molokai’s Medical Future be Home Grown?”

Dispatch reporter and advisor Catherine Cluett Pactol won third place in the Community Reporting category for her article “Penny Martin Shares Hokule’a Memories on Voyage Anniversary.”

Cluett Pactol also won awards for her work with Hawaii Public Radio, including first place for her radio piece entitled, “These Upcountry Maui neighbors are taking a grassroots approach to save their community,” second place for “Aboard a small plane, this Maui pilot takes animal rescues to new heights,” and second place for her contributions to HPR in the all media Breaking News category for her coverage of the Maui wildfires.

The Molokai Dispatch has now won 42 Excellence in Journalism awards since 2014 for its coverage of local events and issues. The Molokai Dispatch staff is honored to receive this recognition and be named among the state’s best news sources, and we are grateful to our community for their continued support.
Molokai’s only newspaper has been printing weekly since 1985.