Rick Romancito of Taos News wins public-notice journalism award for coverage of planned cloud-seeding project

Rick Romancito

Rural journalists dominated the National Newspaper Association Foundation's 2022 Michael Kramer Public Notice Journalism Award competition, reports the Public Notice Resource Center, which co-sponsors the contest.

Many readers of the Taos News in New Mexico were confused and curious when they read a public notice in the paper announcing a plan to seed clouds to produce rain. Editor and reporter Rick Romancito's efforts to explain the phenomenon and coverage of the ensuing controversy earned him first place in the contest.

Romancito's continuing coverage stirred so much local opposition that the project application was soon withdrawn. "In addition to being a fine example of public-notice journalism, Romancito’s initial story was a model of thorough reporting that described the cloud-seeding process and the history behind its use and development," PRNC reports. "It also explained to readers how they could comment on the application."

Second place went to Sam Galski of the Standard-Speaker in Hazleton, Pa., for "several examples of excellent shoe-leather coverage of common municipal issues like zoning plans and infrastructure projects. Each of his stories cite a public notice as an important source," PNRC reports.

"Two North Dakota papers — The Bismarck Tribune and 2020 Public Notice Award winner The (Crosby) Journal — tied for third," PNRC writes. "The stories from North Dakota that tied for third place both focus on a similar subject: How public officials sometimes fail to satisfy the state’s already lax meeting-notice requirements."

The award is named for the late Michael Kramer, who was a PNRC board member and president of Law Bulletin Media in Chicago. It reminds us that public notice is the third leg of the three-legged stool of open government, along with open-records and open-meetings laws,