SPJ NorCal 2024 Excellence in Journalism Awards Contest

DEADLINE EXTENDED: 11:59 p.m. PT on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024

Contact: spjnorcal@gmail.com / Ben Trefny (415) 290-2421 / or Meaghan Mitchell (415) 218-3434.

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 39 years, the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has selected from among our region’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.

You’ll find details on all the context categories below and the form to submit entries here.

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.

This year’s Excellence in Journalism Awards ceremony will be held in person in mid-November. Details to come.

Thank you for your work! We look forward to reviewing your submissions!

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/Podcast 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 three stories.
• Categories: Radio/Audio/Podcast, 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 three stories.
• Categories: Radio/Audio/Podcast, 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.
• Entry specifications: Submit no more than three news stories and related multimedia content demonstrating the range and depth of local news coverage.
• Categories: Print/Online, Radio/Audio/Podcast 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/Podcast, 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 5,000 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 three stories or broadcast segments.
• Categories: Radio/Audio/Podcast, 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 three 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/Podcast, 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/Podcast 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/Podcast, 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 three stories and related multimedia content demonstrating the range and depth of coverage.
• Categories: Print/Online, Radio/Audio/Podcast and TV/Video.

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

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

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

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

INTERVIEW — Honors individuals who have conducted the most important, informational, intriguing or otherwise utterly compelling one-on-one interview.
• Entry specifications: Submit one interview and related multimedia content.
• Categories: Print/Online, Radio/Audio/Podcast and TV/Video.

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 up to three 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 a 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.
  • 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.

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.
• 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: Submit up to three samples. 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 career reflects an extraordinary dedication to amplifying unheard voices and sharing stories from marginalized communities.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

You’ll find details on all the contest categories here and the form to submit entries here.

Qualifying timeframe: Entries must have been published/broadcast between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024, 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. 27, 2024.

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. Judges reserve the right to reset the boundaries between large and small divisions within a category based on the number of entries received.

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.

Moving entries: If judges assigned to a category believe that one or more entry should be considered for a different category, they may move entries at their discretion.

Entry fees:

Fee for SPJ members**: $30 per entry.
Fee for non-SPJ members: $40 per entry.
Fee 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, go to: www.spj.org/join.asp. 

PAYMENT PROCESS

You have three payment options. Please choose one of the following:

Pay online via PayPal
• Use PayPal to send the amount you owe to treas.spjnorcal@gmail.com.

Pay by check• Send a check for the full amount to:
SPJ NorCal Chapter
c/o San Francisco Public Press
44 Page St., Ste. 504
San Francisco, CA 94102

Pay with a credit card via Square
• If you choose this option, we will call you for your credit card information.

For technical support or if you have other questions, reach out to spjnorcal@gmail.com or Ben Trefny (415) 290-2421.

–30–