Washington, D.C. - David Bradley, chairman of Atlantic Media Company, announced Loretta Tofani the 2008 recipient of the Michael Kelly Award at a ceremony Thursday night in Washington. She was honored for her series on unsafe working conditions in China written for The Salt Lake Tribune.

The $25,000 award, which celebrates its 5th Anniversary this year, is given annually to a journalist whose work exemplifies a quality that animated Michael Kelly's own career: the fearless pursuit and expression of truth. Kelly, who was the editor of two Atlantic Media publications, The Atlantic and National Journal, was killed while covering the war in Iraq in 2003.

According to a statement from the award judges, Tofani's four-part series "is a tribute to her persistence, resourcefulness, and moral courage." After going into private business and seeing first-hand the working conditions in China, Tofani decided to return to journalism, but discovered that few news organizations were interested in her reporting. Only through her perseverance was she able to find a newspaper committed to collaborating with her on the series.

In addition to Tofani, the judges recognized as finalists journalists who wrote three other entries: Kelly Kennedy, a staff writer for Army Times, for her series on an Army battalion in Iraq; Joshua Kors, an investigative reporter for The Nation, for stories on the military denying medical benefits to soldiers returning from Iraq; and Blake Morrison, Peter Eisler, and Tom Vanden Brook for articles in USA Today, on the Pentagon's response to the threat of roadside bombs in Iraq. The finalists received $3,000 for their entry.

Atlantic Media received a total of 52 entries from reporters and editors at newspapers and magazines from across the country. The award is for work published in 2007.

Five judges comprised this year's Michael Kelly Award selection panel: Peter Beinart, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; Nick Gillespie, editor of Reason.tv and Reason.com; Charles Green, editor of National Journal; Ruth Marcus, editorial writer and columnist of The Washington Post; and Cullen Murphy, editor-at-large of Vanity Fair.

Atlantic Media Company is a Washington, D.C.-based publishing company whose flagship properties include The Atlantic, National Journal, and Government Executive.