OCN wins national award

You might see OCN in your mailbox – like your actual, physical mailbox.

Oviedo Community News won a national support award from the American Press Institute in September to spread the word about its 2024 Voter Guide beyond the digital world and into the physical one, which is why folks in Greater Oviedo and Winter Springs might have seen OCN’s famous rooster among the usual letters, flyers and catalogs recently. 

API awarded OCN a $3,500 grant to do this work, alongside 20 other news organizations, as part of its 2024 Election Coverage and Community Listening Fund. 

OCN’s General Election Voter Guide was published digitally at the beginning of the month and includes 34 candidate profiles, Q&As that pose questions collected from voters, an in-depth article on candidate finance reports, articles about the amendments that will be on the ballot and recordings from election-related events, such as candidate forums and debates. 

OCN has produced a voter guide every year since it launched in 2021 and the guides have always centered around voters’ needs. This year, we were able to expand to include the primary election and state-level races.  

OCN’s website had more than 71,000 views from the time we launched the 2024 Primary Election Voter Guide until right after the primary election. Articles within the guide had anywhere from 1,000 to 6,000 views. OCN will report the impact from its general election guide after the election. 

Beyond the election, the guide helps to serve as an explainer for local government, providing basic voter information and government office explanations, including elected officials’ salaries.