Record wins coveted award for investigative reporting

For the second time in three years, the Marion County Record has won the coveted Victor Murdock Award for the best investigative reporting by any news organization in the state.

Finn Hartnett’s coverage of how a police officer with a checkered background had been hired in Peabody was honored with the award. After completing a year at the Record, Hartnett now works for The New Republic magazine.

Hartnett also won $5,000 and the Record $2,500 for placing first in A-Mark Foundation’s annual competition designed to encourage non-partisan investigative journalism nationwide.

The Record placed second in the first year of that competition in 2025 and has won for best investigative reporting in its circulation class nearly every year for the past decade.

The Record received 34 other awards, announced previously, at a convention Friday in Hutchinson.