Dreiling was honored in the competition's print category, open to all print media in the St. Louis metropolitan area. The broadcast-journalism-division winner was news producer Kevin Lavery of KWMU (90.7 FM), for a piece titled "The Missouri Moratorium Movement." Previous print winners include George Pawlaczyk of the Belleville News-Democrat, who received the award in 2002 for coverage of crack-cocaine sales on the East Side, and Michael Sorkin and Phyllis Brasch Librach of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who were honored in 2001 for stories about a rogue informant.
Dreiling's cover story examined an innovative community court pioneered by St. Louis Municipal Court Judge Jim Sullivan to target prostitution in the inner city.