Have you started working on your EIJ entries?

The deadline is next Friday, Sept. 20.

2019 Excellence in Journalism Awards Contest

DEADLINE: 11:59 p.m. PT on Friday, Sept. 20, 2019

Contact: spj.excellenceinjournalism@gmail.com or Lila LaHood (415) 846-5346 or Liz Enochs (415) 323-0220. This full announcement is also available on spjnorcal.org.
 

Know a journalist who has done brilliant work over the past year? Someone who does whatever it takes to get the story, photo or video? Whose dedication to our craft is second to none? Maybe that journalist is you! For the past 34 years, the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has selected from among the Bay Area’s best of the best for its acclaimed Excellence in Journalism Awards. These awards honor the journalists whose outstanding work embodies SPJ’s ideals of initiative, integrity, talent and compassion.

We’ve made a few changes to the instructions — read below for details and submit your entries on the contest entry site: awards.spjnorcal.org. Create an account, and the site will walk you through the rest.

We welcome entries from journalists producing work in emerging formats and recommend broad interpretation of award categories. Be sure to name everyone who played a significant role in producing the entry and explain how each person was involved. Letters of nomination are required for Board Award nominations; they are optional for other categories.

See below for complete Contest Categories and Submission Guidelines.

Best of luck!

CONTEST CATEGORIES

BREAKING NEWS
Honors individuals, teams or news organizations whose work demonstrates clear and accurate reporting and engaging writing on deadline. Judges will consider deadline pressure and complexity of subject.
Entry specifications: Submit up to three stories and related multimedia content.
Categories: Print/Online, Radio/Audio and TV/Video.

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING
Honors individuals or teams that identify important issues and reporting that demonstrates initiative, persistence and resourcefulness in pursuing information that is restricted or not easily available.
Entry specifications: Submit one story or a series, along with any related multimedia content. If entering a series, please submit no more than four stories.
Categories: Radio/Audio, TV/Video, and Small and Large divisions for Print/Online.

EXPLANATORY JOURNALISM
Honors journalists who elucidate significant stories and complex situations. Entries may deepen understanding of issues in the news or may focus on subjects largely uncovered by the media.
Entry specifications: Submit one story or a series, along with any related multimedia content. If entering a series, please submit no more than four stories.
Categories: Radio/Audio, TV/Video, and Small and Large divisions for Print/Online.

COMMUNITY JOURNALISM


Honors journalists and organizations whose primary focus is coverage of a community or neighborhood. Entries may include print publications, news broadcasts or news sites. University-supported projects are not eligible.
Entry specifications: This is for community-based outlets. Submit no more than five news stories and related multimedia content, or two news packages demonstrating the range and depth of local news coverage.
Categories: Print/Online, Radio/Audio and TV/Video.

FEATURES JOURNALISM
Honors journalists for exceptional narrative writing. Judges will consider creativity, use of humor or drama, style, clarity and suitability of the writing to the subject.
Entry specifications: Submit one story (fewer than 5,000 words if in print or under 15 minutes if broadcast) along with any related multimedia content. 
Categories: Radio/Audio, TV/Video, and Print/Online.

LONGFORM STORYTELLING
Honors journalists for exceptional longform narrative writing. Judges will consider creativity, use of humor or drama, style, clarity, structure and flow.
Entry specifications: Submit one story (at least 3,000 words or more than 15 minutes broadcast) or a series, along with any related multimedia content. If entering a series, please submit no more than four stories or broadcast segments.
Categories: Radio/Audio, TV/Video, and Small and Large divisions for Print/Online.

ONGOING COVERAGE
Honors journalists who follow a story for at least six months (i.e. long-term coverage of a topic or major event) with solid reporting and demonstrated excellence in presenting new angles with complexity and perspective. More specific than a general beat, the issue or event being covered should be an emerging news story.
Entry specifications: Submit up to five stories, along with any related multimedia content. Entries may include a mix of story types, e.g. breaking news, features and explanatory.
Categories: Radio/Audio, TV/Video, and Small and Large divisions for Print/Online.

COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS
Honors individuals and teams for exceptional commentary, analysis and editorials. Entries may include bylined or unsigned content. News-related blogs are also eligible. Judges will consider quality of expression, clarity and originality.
Entry specifications: Submit up to three samples.
Categories: Print/Online, Radio/Audio and TV/Video.

ARTS & CULTURE REPORTING
Honors journalists for incisive reporting about art, music, movies, theater, dance, books, restaurants, architecture or other public performance. May also include reviews, for which judges will consider quality of analysis and persuasiveness of arguments.
Entry specifications: Submit up to three samples.
Categories: Radio/Audio, TV/Video, and Small and Large divisions for Print/Online.

TECHNOLOGY REPORTING
Honors journalists and organizations whose primary focus is coverage of technology. Entries may include print publications, news broadcasts or news sites.
Entry specifications: Submit no more than five stories and related multimedia content, or two packages demonstrating the range and depth of coverage.
Categories: Print/Online, Radio/Audio and TV/Video.

SCIENCE, ENVIRONMENT and HEALTH REPORTING
Honors journalists and organizations whose primary focus is coverage of science, environment and health. Entries may include print publications, news broadcasts or news sites.
Entry specifications: Submit no more than five stories and related multimedia content, or two packages demonstrating the range and depth of coverage.
Categories: Print/Online, Radio/Audio and TV/Video.

SPORTS REPORTING
Honors journalists and organizations whose primary focus is coverage of sports. Entries may include print publications, news broadcasts or news sites.
Entry specifications: Submit no more than five stories and related multimedia content, or two packages demonstrating the range and depth of coverage.
Categories: Print/Online, Radio/Audio and TV/Video.

DATA VISUALIZATION
Honors individuals or organizations that have demonstrated excellence in presenting complex information using graphics, maps and other data visualization and interactive tools.
Entry specifications: Submit up to three samples. Include the associated stories or links to them online.
Categories: All media.

BEST SCOOP
Honors individuals or organizations for breaking an important news story that led to extensive coverage by other organizations.
Entry specifications: Submit one story or package of related stories and associated multimedia content.
Categories: All media.

PHOTOJOURNALISM
Please include the written story or explanation with each submission.
Breaking News — Honors individuals, teams or news organizations whose work demonstrates clear, accurate and artistic photojournalism produced on deadline. Judges will consider deadline pressure and complexity of subject.
Entry specifications: Submit photos with cutlines from up to three stories. No more than 15 images in all.
Categories: Individual and Team.
Photo Essay — Honors individuals, teams or news organizations for excellent storytelling presented in series of related photos that either serve as a stand-alone photo essay or are associated with a written story.
Entry specifications: Submit photos with cutlines from one photo essay. No more than 15 images in all.
Categories: Essay of 1 to 5 images; Essay of 6 to 10 images; Essay of 11 to 15 images.
Portfolio — Honors an individual for excellence in photojournalism.
Entry specifications: Submit up to 10 images with cutlines. Include the associated stories or links to them online.
Single Image — Honors an individual for a single excellent image captured in the past year.
Entry specifications: Submit one image with cutline. Include the associated story or a link to it online.

VIDEO JOURNALISM
Video journalism is image-driven and may or may not include narration.
Breaking News — Honors individuals, teams or news organizations whose work demonstrates clear, accurate and graceful video journalism produced on deadline. Judges will consider deadline pressure and complexity.
Entry specifications: Submit videos from up to three stories.
Feature — Honors individuals, teams or news organizations for excellent, artful storytelling
Entry specifications: Submit one video of up to 60 minutes.
Portfolio — Honors an individual for excellence in video journalism.
Entry specifications: Submit up to five stories with a maximum combined length of up to 60 minutes.

PODCAST JOURNALISM
Honors an individual or team for a podcast that displays excellence in reporting and journalistic storytelling across multiple episodes that stand alone or are part of a series.  
Entry specifications: Submit up to four episodes. Podcast entries may have also aired as radio broadcasts.

DESIGN
Honors individual designers or teams whose artistic presentation significantly enhances the audience experience and improves engagement and access to journalistic work.
Entry specifications: Submit up to three samples of work.
Categories: Sound design, video design, print design and web/mobile design

OUTSTANDING EMERGING JOURNALIST


Honors a journalist with less than five years of professional experience whose work shows great promise.
Entry specifications: Submit resume and three samples of work.
Categories: All media

STUDENT SPECIAL PROJECTS
Honors individuals or groups of students for exemplary reporting, writing, and/or photography produced by all forms of student media, including special projects that report local news. These should be student-generated and not part of an ongoing university-sponsored project.
Entry specifications: Submit up to three samples.
Categories: All media

PUBLIC SERVICE
Honors individuals, teams, or news organizations that try to improve conditions for the benefit of society. Entries will be judged on the significance of the issues, initiative, presentation and results.
Entry specifications: May include articles, editorials, public service announcements, cartoons, photos and graphics.
Categories: All media

NORCAL SPJ BOARD OF DIRECTORS AWARDS
Every year, the SPJ-NorCal Board of Directors honors individuals in the following six categories. Anyone may nominate candidates. Letters of nomination are required for Board Award nominations. There is no fee to nominate candidates for Board Awards. Complete instructions are available online.
1) Journalist of the Year: For extraordinary journalistic contributions in the past year.
2) Career Achievement: For extraordinary achievements exemplifying the highest standards of the profession.
3) Unsung Hero: A person whose contribution to journalism usually happens behind the scenes and is often overlooked (for example, a copy editor, librarian, web producer).
4) Meritorious SPJ Service/John Gothberg Award: For outstanding contributions to the Northern California Chapter of SPJ.
5) Distinguished Service: For advancement or advocacy of journalism by a journalist or non-journalist.
6) The Silver Heart: Awarded to a journalist whose work exemplifies an extraordinary dedication to amplifying unheard voices and sharing stories from marginalized communities.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Qualifying Timeframe: Entries must have been published/broadcast between July 1, 2018 and June 30, 2019, by a news outlet or individuals based in Northern California — which for the purposes of this contest includes everything from Santa Barbara County to the Oregon border. Each entrant may submit only one entry per category.

Deadline: Entries must be time-stamped by 11:59 p.m. PT on Friday, Sept. 20, 2019.

Multiple entries: Stories or projects entered in the Public Service, Best Scoop or Outstanding Emerging Journalist categories may also be entered in one other category. Entries for other categories may not be entered in multiple categories.

Cover letters: Letters of nomination or recommendation are permitted in any category, but they are not required, except for Board Award nominations.

Divisions: Some categories are divided into Small and Large divisions to reflect the reality that larger organizations have more resources than smaller ones. “Large” organizations are defined as organizations where one or more of the following apply: print circulation exceeds 100,000 and/or average monthly unique website visitors exceed 500,000. If neither of those apply to your organization, select “Small.” If your organization is a news service or an organization that produces content for syndication, choose your division based on the estimated reach the story received in syndication.

You must supply information regarding circulation or audience reach where it is requested. If a category receives a large number of entries, judges may create two divisions and will need circulation or audience information to do so.

Fee:
For SPJ members**: $30 per entry.
For non-SPJ members: $40 per entry.
For students: $10 per entry.

** To be eligible for the $30 SPJ member entry fee, you must be a member of both the SPJ national organization (current membership fee $75) AND the SPJ Northern California chapter ($20) as of the time-stamp of entry. Membership is good for 12 months, based on the date you joined. Chapter membership entitles you to free or reduced member admission to NorCal chapter activities, including the Excellence in Journalism Awards dinner. To join SPJ and the NorCal chapter, please go to: www.spj.org/join.asp.

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