Wilmette, News

The Record a finalist for Peter Lisagor Award as Best Start-Up

Less than one year after its founding, The Record North Shore is already receiving recognition for its daily, hyperlocal reporting.

The Record was nominated in the Best Start-Up category of the Chicago Headline Club’s Peter Lisagor Awards.

The Lisagor awards “are an annual celebration of the best journalism produced throughout the Chicagoland region, spanning all mediums including print, radio, television and digital,” according to the Chicago Headline Club, an independent nonprofit.

Award finalists are selected by an independent chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists from across more than 100 different categories.

After suburban newspaper chain 22nd Century Media shuttered in March of 2020, Joe Coughlin, Megan Bernard and Martin Carlino — three former editors with the community news company — launched The Record to restore responsible, community-first news coverage in the North Shore.

The Record’s daily website launched on Oct. 1, 2020, just three months after the trio cofounded the nonprofit.

“The need for responsible local news is real, and in 2020, that work mattered even more,” said Joe Coughlin, The Record’s editor in chief. “That’s why we started The Record. Martin, Megan and I work to produce thoughtful, trustworthy community journalism every day, and we’re honored to be recognized for those efforts.”

Since its debut last year, The Record has published more than 500 local news stories on its daily website.

Lisagor award winners will be announced virtually on Friday, May 14.


The Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan community newsroom that relies on reader support to fuel its independent local journalism.

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martin carlino
Martin Carlino

Martin Carlino is a co-founder and the senior editor who assigns and edits The Record stories, while also bylining articles every week. Martin is an experienced and award-winning education reporter who was the editor of The Northbrook Tower.

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