The award eventually went to Scottish national news website The Caledonian Mercury, but Help Me Investigate was "Highly commended" and finished second, ahead of big regional publishers including Archant and Northcliffe.

This is a very welcome recognition for all those who have contributed to investigations on the site. Please feel proud ? it?s your site.

Meanwhile, I?ve been bringing in extra support on the site ? Rob Dale and Shane Croucher have been supporting investigations ? in particular the investigation into
How many destitute asylum seekers are there in the UK? Should destitution be a part of asylum seeking process at all?
and
Where and why are babies being born in hospital without a midwife present?

We?ll be sending Rob, Shane, and some others to the Centre for Investigative Journalism Summer School next week too, so if you need to kickstart an investigation, now might be a good time.

Finally, I am no longer sending monthly emails to every member of the site; instead I am switching site communication to the Help Me Investigate Facebook group and Google mailing list. If you still want to hear what?s happening on the site, please join them at
http://groups.google.com/group/helpmeinvestigate
and
http://bit.ly/hmifbgroup

This will allow you to control your communications, opt out, and communicate with other members more easily.

And if you have any other ideas for how we can best use those tools, let me know.