Best of CASE District I Award
 

Institution: University of Rhode Island

Title of entry: The Second-to-Last Lobsterman, URI Magazine spring 2023 cover

About this entry: There were four feature stories in our spring 2023 issue. All featured strong photography and all could easily have been cover contenders.

But our decision to feature "The Second-to-Last Lobsterman on Block Island" was actually easy.

The story, about URI student Ebben Howarth, a fourth-generation lobsterman, was excellent, and a distinctively URI story—fishing is a huge part of our local identity, Block Island is a perennial favorite spot for our community, the blue economy is a huge player in our state economy and a major focus of our current president, and our oceanography and fisheries faculty and their research are world-renowned.

And then there was the story title. Leading with "The Second-to-Last..." begs so many questions. We don't normally use the story title as the cover line, but in this case, well, how could we not?

Finally, there was the photography. The subject of the story, Ebben, shared a couple of photos of himself with us, shot by one of his Block Island buddies. The photos were amazing. We asked him if he'd be willing to connect us with the photographer. He did. Turns out his Block Island buddy, Aisha McAdams, is a talented and accomplished photographer (shooting billboards for Converse at the time we caught up with her) who'd done a whole series of photos of Ebben. And for a very small fee, she was willing to share some of them with us.

This cover was one of our most commented-on ever. The feedback (all positive) was overwhelming.