In previous months, we detailed all of the winning DFMies efforts in a single blog post. We’re taking a different approach with the December DFMies. We’re announcing the winners today and will spotlight them each in individual posts.

(Next week we will be recognizing coverage of the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Conn., separately from the DFMies. Digital First Media covered the school attack with staffers from three different geographic clusters of DFM and our Thunderdome newsroom working as a team, so that extraordinary team effort doesn’t fit in the structure of the DFMies, which recognizes the month’s best work within each cluster.)

The list of December DFMies winners is below. Each of these winners is featured in a separate spotlights post, with video clips from the winners and comments from judges — just click the cluster name to see more.

• Northeast - Viktoria Sundkvist gathered and analyzed all the contracts of school superintendents in Connecticut and worked with the Thunderdome data team to present them in an interactive map showing details of each contract and links to the contracts in Document Cloud. 
• PA/NJ/WV - The Charleston Daily Mail staff won for coverage of a pipeline explosion in Sissonville, W.V.
• Midwest - Kelly Petryszyn of the Morning Journal in Lorain, Ohio, won in the Midwest for her series, Facing Suicide. (Petryszyn has since joined the staff of Cleveland Magazine.)
• Colorado/Utah - The Daily Camera in Boulder, Colo., and the Times-Call in nearby Longmont won for their collaboration on an interactive holiday lights map using thinglink.
• Texas/New Mexico - Zahira Torres and Hayley Kappes of the El Paso Times won for their yearlong reporting on cheating in the El Paso School District.
• Northern California - Nels Johnson of the Marin Independent Journal reported on double taxation of owners of mobile homes and houseboats
• LANG - Reporters Phillip Zonkel, Susan Abram, Bob Strauss and Mariecar Mendoza and editor Kerry Cavanaugh of the Los Angeles News Group won for their coverage of the death and memorial service for superstar singer Jenni Rivera, a Long Beach native.
• BANG - Dai Sugano and Lisa Krieger of the San Jose Mercury News won for the final installments in their Cost of Dying series. 

The judges for December DFMies were November winners: Michael Hartwell, Katina Caraganis, Patti Mengers, Jen Westpfahl, MaryJo Webster, Maja Beckstrom, Steve McMillan, Tom McKay, Jeff Neumann, Chris Roberts, Jennifer Poole, Leigh Poitinger, Kat Rowlands and Doug Saunders.