# Asbury Park Press

The Asbury Park Press, formerly known as the Shore Press, Daily Press, Asbury Park Daily Press, and Asbury Park Evening Press, is the third largest daily newspaper in the state of New Jersey. Established in 1879, it has been owned by Gannett since 1997. The newspaper is part of the USA Today Network. It has a history of winning and almost winning national awards for its public service and investigative reporting.

## Early history

The Asbury Park Press was founded under the name Shore Press in 1879 by Dr. Hugh S. Kinmonth.; a publication that was only published once a week. In October 1884 the paper was sold at auction to S. T. Hendrickson and W. W. Conover; men who already owned a considerable amount of stock in the newspaper. Hendrickson and Conover in turn sold the paper to the brothers Roderic C. Penfield and Norman W. Penfield in December 1884. The brothers owned the publishing and editing firm Penfield Bros. and took over the publishing and editing of the newspaper at this point with Norman serving as managing editor.
The Penfield brothers significantly expanded the physical size of the Shore Press, improved the quality of the journalism, and made innovative improvements to the design and layout of the paper. In June 1887 the brothers founded the Daily Press as a companion publication to the Shore Press. When initially established, the Daily Press was published every weekday morning during the summer months. The brothers continued to own and operate the paper into the year 1895. In August 1895 public notice was given on the financial problems of the Penfield Bros. firm, and the following September the firm was declared bankrupt in orphans court.
Following the bankruptcy of the Penfields, the Shore Press, Daily Press, and the Penfield's publishing plant in Asbury Park were purchased by Dr. Hugh S. Kinmonth at an assignee's sale in October 1895. Kinmonth sold the paper to his nephew, Lyle J. Kinmoth, and after several months of non-publication the paper was relaunched as the Asbury Park Daily Press on March 30, 1896. Under his leadership the Daily Press expanded into a year-round daily publication, with the Shore Press serving as the paper's Sunday publication through 1904. The Asbury Daily Press was renamed the Asbury Park Evening Press beginning with the Monday, June 22, 1903 publication of the paper. It was published under that name until 1974 when its name became the Asbury Park Press, beginning with the Monday, September 30, 1974 publication.

## Awards

| Award year | Story/staffer | National award |
| 1998 | Stephen P. Breen, ten cartoons | Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning |
| 2004 | Profiting from Public Service (published with Gannett New Jersey) by Paul D'Ambrosio, James W. Prado Roberts, Jason Method, Alan Guenther, Jean Mikle, Erik Schwartz, and GNJ staff | Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting; Farfel Prize for Excellence in Investigative Reporting; The National Headliner Award for Public Service; SDX Award for Public Service; APME Award for Public Service; Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, finalist; The Worth Bingham Prize, honorable mention; The Scripps Howard Award for Public Service, finalist; The IRE Award, finalist; Deadline Club Public Service, finalist |
| 2005 | Corruption editorials by Randy Bergmann | Scripps Howard Walker Stone Award |
| 2006 | "New Jersey's Pension Peril" by Michael L. Diamond, Nicholas Clunn, Eileen Smith, Peter N. Spencer, Ken Tarbous, Rob Jennings, Alan Guenther, Jonathan Tamari and Paul D'Ambrosio | Investigative Reporters and Editors, medium newspapers, finalist |
| 2007 | DataUniverse.com created by Paul D'Ambrosio | Knight News Innovation Award, EPpy Awards, finalist; Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation – Crowdsourcing, notable entry |
| 2009 | "A Troubled Diagnosis" by Alan Guenther | Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, finalist |
| 2010 | "Fighting New Jersey's Tax Crush" by Paul D'Ambrosio, Shannon Mullen, Jean Mikle, Todd B. Bates and Andrea Clurfeld | Pulitzer Prize Public Service Gold Medal, finalist; National Headliner Award, best series in a large daily; APME Public Service Award, medium newspapers; Brechner Freedom of Information Award; Best of Gannett Community Conversation Award |
| 2011 | "Barnegat Bay Under Stress" by Kirk Moore, Todd B. Bates with graphics by Jeff Colson | Generoso Pope Award for best local coverage within the New York metropolitan area; APME Public Service Award, medium newspapers, finalist; Best of Gannett Public Service, second place; Online News Association Public Service Award. |
| 2011 | "Breaking Point" by Paul D'Ambrosio, Shannon Mullen, Christopher Schnaars, Jean Mikle, Todd B. Bates and Andrea Clurfeld | National Headliner Award, best series in a large daily; Investigative Reporters and Editors award, finalist |
| 2012 | "Deadly Decisions" by Shannon Mullen | Deadline Club of NYC, Feature Writing Award; Taylor Family Fairness Award, finalist |
| 2013 | "Cheated: Why Lakewood's public schools have failed us" by Shannon Mullen, Ken Serrano, Margaret Bonafide and Todd B. Bates | Deadline Club of NYC, Minority Focus Award |
| 2013 | "Superstorm Sandy at the Jersey Shore" by Staff | APME Public Service and Best of Show National SPJ/SDX Deadline Reporting Award (medium papers) Scripps Howard Breaking News Award, finalist Deadline Club of NYC, Breaking News Award, finalist |
| 2014 | "Heroin at the Shore" by Dustin Racioppi and Amanda Oglesby | NYC Deadline Club Awards - Public Service finalist |
| 2015 | "Summit for Success" by staff | NYC Deadline Club Awards - Best minority focus - finalist |
| 2015 | "The Iron Soldier" by Ken Serrano and Brian Johnston | National Headliners Club - Best series, up to 100,000 circ. - second place NYC Deadline Club Awards - Best newspaper reporting, up to 100,000 circ. - finalist |
| 2016 | "Monmouth County Tax Assessment" by Susanne Cervenka | Livingston Awards for Young Journalists - Finalist |
| 2016 | "Betrayal of Trust" by Shannon Mullen | National Press Club/Joseph D. Ryle Award for Excellence in Writing on the Problems of Geriatrics National Headliner Awards/Series writing, under 100,000 - third place |
| 2016 | "Tax Crisis" by Paul D'Ambrosio, Susanne Cervenka, Todd B. Bates, Bob Jordan, Michael Symons, Kala Kachmar, Shannon Mullen, Ken Serrano and Michael Diamond | National award for Excellence in Economic Reporting National SDX/SPJ Award for Public Service Best of Gannett, Public Service Award, large publication division NYC Deadline Club Awards - Best newspaper reporting, up to 100,000 circ. |
| 2016 | Hollis R. Towns | APME McGruder Diversity Award |
| 2016 | "Childhood Lead Poisoning in New Jersey," by Todd B. Bates | National Association of Black Journalists, Specialty Reporting, finalist |
| 2017 | "Municipal Court Cash Machine," Kala Kachmar | Livingston Awards for Young Journalists - Finalist |
| 2017 | "Long Fall," Andrew Ford | NYC Deadline Club Awards - Best newspaper reporting, under 100,000 circ. |
| 2017 | "The Family Secret," Brian Johnston | Emmy - Mid-Atlantic chapter, Human Interest Feature |
| 2018 | "Renter Hell," Shannon Mullen, Payton Guion | NABJ Award for investigations, under 150K; NYC Deadline Club Awards - Winner, newspaper reporting under 100,000; Goldsmith Award, finalist; ASNE Local Accountability, finalist; Investigative Reporters and Editor, Print/Online Division IV, finalist; USA TODAY Network, Public Service Award, finalist |
| 2019 | "Protecting the Shield" selected stories by Andrew Ford | Livingston Awards for Young Journalists - Finalists |
| 2019 | "Protecting the Shield", by Andrew Ford, Kala Kachmar, Paul D'Ambrosio, Susanne Cervenka, Alex Gecan and Ken Serrano | Silver Gavel Award, American Bar Association; NYC Deadline Club Award, best newspaper story, under 100,000 circ.; NABJ, investigative reporting under 100,000; USA TODAY Network, Public Service Award, finalist |
| 2019 | "Protecting the Shield," by Andrew Ford, Kala Kachmar, Paul D'Ambrosio, Susanne Cervenka, Alex Gecan and Ken Serrano | Edward R. Murrow Award, Investigative Reporting, digital news site under 2.5 million unique visitors/month |
| 2020 | "Policing the Police", by Andrew Ford | NYC Deadline Club Award, best newspaper story under 100,000 circ; and finalist, Deadline Club Award for Public Service |
| 2020 | "Dying to Race," by Stephen Edelson and Frank Esposito | Edward R. Murrow Award, Sports Reporting, digital news sites under 2.5 million unique visitors/month; Best of Gannett, enterprise reporting |
| 2020 | "Deadly Chases, Few Arrests," by Andrew Ford | National Assn. of Black Journalists, Investigative Reporting, under 100k newspapers |
| 2020 | "Crack vs. Heroin: An unfair system arrested millions of blacks, urged compassion for whites," by Shannon Mullen, Lisa Robyn Kruse, Andrew J. Goudsward and Austin Bogues | National Assn. of Black Journalists, News Series, under 100k newspapers; Silver Gavel Award, finalist |