We’ve learned that Ryan Burns is up for a prestigious Mirror Award — and a $5,000 prize if he wins — for a story he wrote while still with the Journal, “Ferndale Gothic.”

The Mirror Awards are presented by Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and recognize the best reporting by media on the media. Burns’ piece, which examined the relationship between the small town of Ferndale and its newspaper editor and her husband, the mayor, is one of three finalists in the in-depth/enterprise category.

Burns says he feels honored to be nominated, but notes that his story is up against “the most talked-about story of 2013 — Deadspin's piece about Manti Te'o's fake dead girlfriend.”

Te'o schmeo. We’re banking on Burns to win!

The winners will be announced June 4 at the 2014 Mirror Awards ceremony in New York City.