The Whitman Bassow Award 2007

"Choking on Growth" is a meticulously reported exposé of the worst environmental ills of unbridled economic expansion in China and the damaging consequences both for the Chinese people and the wider world. New York Times correspondents fanned out across China to research and report the story in a 10-part series that made the most of the publication's online multimedia presence. Beautifully illustrated using compelling photography, videography and graphics, the series was aimed as much at a Chinese audience as at a U.S. domestic audience. Podcasts and transcripts of the series in Mandarin ensured a major impact for a story Chinese media are unable to report to the same degree.