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The Mountain View Voice won 10 awards this month in the annual California Journalism Awards contest, including first place finishes in the categories of technology reporting, social justice and civic engagement, and housing and land use reporting.
The Voice was also a finalist for General Excellence, the annual journalism competition’s top prize. Its sister publication, the Pleasanton Weekly, won first place.
Organized by the California News Publishers Association, the annual competition recognizes excellence in journalism. It drew thousands of entries from across the state and covered work that was produced in 2025. The contest is organized by division, with the Voice competing against similar news outlets, based on circulation and number of staff.
And the winners are:
Emily Margaretten won first place in the “Social Justice and Civic Engagement” category for her extensive coverage of local protests against the Trump administration. Mountain View saw repeated demonstrations throughout 2025 in opposition to the federal government’s actions during President Donald Trump’s second term, including its immigration crackdown, federal funding cuts and moves to roll back LGBTQ+ rights. Margaretten persistently covered these protests, which sometimes drew thousands to the streets, making them some of the largest demonstrations in Mountain View’s history.
Margaretten also won first place in the “Housing and Land-Use Reporting” category for her in-depth feature story about a local family at risk of being evicted from their home on land owned by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. The Girouards had lived at the Rhus Ridge trailhead for more than 50 years. Photographer Anna Hoch-Kenney also won fifth place in the “Photo Story/Essay” category for the images she took of the Girouard family.
Margaretten bagged another first place finish in the “Technology Reporting” category for an article about Matternet, a Mountain View-based start-up, dropping off packages at customers’ homes via delivery drones.
Hoch-Kenney won second place in the “Photo Story/Essay” category for the colorful and engaging images she captured at Mountain View’s inaugural city-sponsored Pride celebration last summer. The accompanying article that Voice Editor Zoe Morgan wrote about the event also won third place in the “Feature Story” category.
Margaretten won fourth place in the “Environment Reporting” category for her deep-dive into the number of heritage trees being cut down in Mountain View.
Morgan took home fifth place in the “Coverage of Youth and Education” category for a story about a Coast Guard helicopter landing on the field at Theuerkauf and Stevenson elementary schools for a special event organized by a local dad.
Beyond articles and photos, the Voice also won third place in the “Home Page Layout & Design” category for its website. The Voice’s home page underwent a substantial revamp last year, with the goal of highlighting more of our work in an easy-to-navigate format.
Part of Embarcadero Media Foundation, the Mountain View Voice began publishing in 1993.
