• Poynter, Tuesday, April 19, 2011 3:30 PM

It was a mixture of "traditional City Hall beat reporting with innovative digital storytelling" that led to the win, according to Poynter's Al Tompkins. He tells the behind-the scenes story of the Times' investigative series that led to the ouster of the Bell, Calif. city council.

The paper also included a reader service angle by creating "a public records request form, to help people to get information from their local governments," says reporter Jeff Gottlieb.

And in the Times' new online DocumentCloud section, "readers can share public documents they discover" writes Tomkins, and learn "about their rights to read public information and what California law says about open records and open meetings." Cool ways of making newspapers relevant to the public!

Read the whole story at Poynter »