Tag Archives: Awards

2012 Online Journalism Awards now open for entries

Entries are now open for this year’s Online Journalism Awards, which have been organised by the US Online News Association since 2000.

The awards are for entrants from around the world and honour excellence in digital journalism and multimedia storytelling in all its forms – from major news organisations to independent publishers.

Twelve judges will go through the entries in August to select the winners. Eight awards come with prize money from the Knight Foundation and Gannett Foundation.

The deadline is 21 June and the winners will be announced in San Francisco on 22 September. Last year’s winners included Al-Jazeera’s coverage of the uprisings in Egypt and the BBC News website.

Inaugural British Media Awards winners announced

The Economist and Future Publishing took away the most prizes with two awards each at the annual British Media Awards last night.

The Economist was named Media Company of the Year, for being what judges described as “a global leader in publishing and a trendsetter among brands with a foot still in the print world but looking with confidence into a digital future.”

They also received an award for Online Advertising Innovation.

Future Publishing’s N-Photo magazine won two categories, Social Media and Marketing Innovation and Consumer Magazine Innovator of the Year.

In an article on TheMediaBriefing, which runs the awards, Neil Thackray, awards judging committee chairman and Briefing Media co-founder said:

These awards represent the best of innovation in British Media.

And they illustrate how the industry is changing: the lines between media owner, technology company and agency are becoming blurred and the British Media Awards simply celebrate the best media ideas, brands and products, wherever they come from.

The full list of winners is below:

  • Social Media and Marketing Innovation: N-Photo, Future (Highly commended:Huffington Post UK)
  • Online Advertising Innovation: The Economist, for its Phillips campaign
  • Paid Content Innovation: Lloyds List Group, Informa Business Information
  • Most Innovative Technology for Media Owners: ScribbleLive
  • Consumer Magazine Innovator of the Year: N-Photo, Future (Highly commended: The Economist)
  • B2B Innovator of the year: Estates Gazette, Reed Business Information
  • Best Use of Mobile: British Journal of Photography, Incisive Media
  • Commercial Team of the Year: InSkin Media
  • Digital Media Innovator of the Year: InSkin Media (Highly commended: Huffington Post UK)
  • Media Innovator of the Year: Carla Buzasi, Huffington Post UK
  • Media Company of the Year: The Economist
  • Overall Media Innovation of the Year: InSkin Media

Knight Foundation senior advisor receives Markoff award for investigative reporting fund

Senior advisor to the president of the Knight Foundation Eric Newton has received the Markoff Award for the Foundation’s support of investigative reporting.

The Knight Foundation has invested more than $100 million (£63.2m) in reporting technologies and techniques since 2007.

The award was presented on Saturday 14 April by Lowell Bergman, the former 60 Minutes investigative reporter who founded the University of California at Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Programme, Newton says on the Knight blog as he announces his win:

Knight Foundation has invested some $20 million in investigative reporting projects. They range from establishing an endowed chair, supporting  professional and training organizations, establishment of university-based investigative reporting projects, funding for specific investigations and direct support for independent nonprofit investigative  reporting newsrooms.

Knight’s most recent investigative reporting grant was announced last week – $800,000 to the Center for Investigative Reporting to work with the Investigative News Network to launch an investigative reporting channel on YouTube.

The Markoff Award is named after New York Times journalist John Markoff.

Shortlists out for British Sports Journalism Awards

The Times has picked up 12 nominations in the writing categories for this year’s Sports Journalism Awards, more than any other news outlet.

The winners will be announced on March 12, alongside the entries in the photography and broadcasting categories (the shortlists for which have already been announced).

Chairman of the judges Jon Ryan said:

I don’t recall a time when so many of our judges have commented on the high quality of the entries. I am also delighted that the number of entries kept up during what has not been the easiest time for newspapers.

If you want to show anyone why newspapers are important, why they matter and why journalists should be respected for their writing, news reporting and investigative skills then you need to look no further than the SJA awards. I would like to thank our team of judges for their thoroughness and diligence in reaching their decisions.

The full shortlist can be found on the SJA website.

New York Times takes two wins at George Polk Awards

The George Polk Awards, run by Long Island University, announced the winners of its 63rd event today.

According to a release the New York Times won two of the 15 categories. The first, for military reporting, was awarded to CJ Chivers, and the second was the foreign reporting prize which went to Jeffrey Gettleman and Tyler Hicks for their “numerous exclusives and heart-wrenching photos of ethnic conflict, pillage, famine and piracy”.

It was also announced that Anthony Shadid, the New York Times foreign correspondent who died from an apparent asthma attack in Syria last week, will receive a posthumous award “for extraordinary valor for his work in the Middle East”.

Other winners include the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, the New Yorker and the Boston Globe.

“There was a strong field of contenders this year, especially in investigative work,” said John Darnton, curator of the George Polk Awards. “It was a big year for news with the Arab Spring and the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and reporters from many news organizations went behind the headlines to search for underlying causes and trends.”

The full list of winners can be found here.

Entries now open for 2012 Online Media Awards

Entries are now open for this year’s Online Media Awards, which set out to recognise the best digital news work from online operators big and small.

There are 17 categories covering everything from writing and editing to photography, design and use of social media. The entry deadline for the awards, now in their second year, is 23 March. The finalists will be announced mid-April and the winners at the awards ceremony in London in June.

Last year’s big winner was the Sunday Times website, which won six awards including best video journalism, best campaigning or investigative journalism, best use of photography, plus the grand prix. The site’s editor, Gordon Thomson, was named online editor of the year.

To find out more, see http://www.onlinemediaawards.net/

Property Week journalist takes top prize at PTC New Talent Awards

Nick Johnstone of UBM title Property Week has claimed the top award at the Periodicals Training Council’s inaugural New Talent Awards.

Johnstone was handed the grand prix 2012 at a ceremony in London last night (February 1).

He was also named new business features journalist of the year.

This year the PTC changed its award scheme, expanding “to reflect the range of roles across the publishing sector”, it explained in a release.

The awards recognised the “most promising student journalists of the year”, with the undergraduate title going to Stacey Bartlett from the University of Central Lancashire and Rakesh Ramchurn from City University named in the postgraduate category.

Immediate Media Co, the company formed in October from the amalgamation of BBC Magazines, Origin Publishing and Magicalia, was the biggest winner on the night, taking home three awards.

Winners of the PTC New Talent Awards 2012

  • Grand Prix 2012: Nick Johnstone, Property Week, United Business Media
  • New Publisher of the Year: Martin Stahel, Immediate Media Co.
  • New Ad Manager of the Year: Ossie Bayram, Hearst Magazines UK
  • New Business News Journalist of the Year: Carl Brown, Inside Housing, Ocean Media Group
  • New Business Features Journalist of the Year: Nick Johnstone, Property Week, United Business Media
  • New Editor of the Year: Tom Cullen, ShortList Media
  • New Consumer Specialist/Customer Journalist of the Year: Louise Ridley, Immediate Media Co.
  • New Designer of the Year: Elliott Web, Q Magazine, Bauer Media
  • New Consumer Journalist of the Year: Amy Grier, ShortList Media
  • New Sales Executive of the Year: Courtney Maggs-Jones, JLD Media
  • New Classified Sales Executive of the Year: Sereena Gill, IPC Media
  • New Section Editor of the Year: Zoe Smeaton, Chemist+Druggist, UBM Medica
  • New Marketing Executive of the Year: Caroline Motson, Immediate Media Co
  • New Direct Marketing Executive of the Year: Elizabeth Telford, Newsquest Special Media
  • Most Promising Student Journalist of the Year (Undergraduate): Stacey Bartlett, the University of Central Lancashire
  • Most Promising Student Journalist of the Year (Postgraduate): Rakesh Ramchurn, City University, London

Pulitzer Prize revises breaking news category to reflect real-time reporting

Statue of Joseph Pulitzer in New York. Image by ConspiracyofHappiness on Flickr. Some rights reserved

The Pulitzer Prize board has announced some changes to the awards, taking its submissions process online and revising the breaking news category to reflect real-time reporting.

The changes to the breaking news category suggest that coverage on social networks and liveblogs may be considered for the prestigious prize from 2012.

According to a release from the prize board, the revised definition for the category reads:

For a distinguished example of local reporting of breaking news that, as quickly as possible, captures events accurately as they occur, and, as times passes, illuminates, provides context and expands upon the initial coverage.

This replaces the previous definition:

For a distinguished example of local reporting of breaking news, with special emphasis on the speed and accuracy of the initial coverage, using any available journalistic tool, including text reporting, videos, databases, multimedia or interactive presentations or any combination of those formats, in print or online or both

The board added that it would be “disappointing if an event occurred at 8am and the first item in an entry was drawn from the next day’s newspaper”.

Last year’s Pulitzers saw no award given in the breaking news category for the first time.

There were three nominations – the Chicago Tribune for coverage of the deaths of two firefighters, the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald for their coverage of the earthquake in Haiti, and the Tennessean, Nashville, for coverage of flood in the state – but no winner. Winners are required to gain a majority vote on the 16-strong board.

The other major change is that applicants will also now be able to make their full submission online.

“The new entry system ends the submission of entries on paper, typically in the form of a scrapbook, a practice dating to the start of the prizes 95 years ago. All entry material, ranging from stories to photographs, graphics and video, must now be submitted in a digital form through a special Pulitzer entry site,” the release from the Prize said.

Last December Pulitzer Prize rules changed to include multimedia journalism, allowing entries to be submitted as text reporting, videos, databases, multimedia, interactive presentations or any combination of those formats.

See the full release on the Pulitzer Prize site.

Coverage elsewhere

Poynter: Pulitzer Prizes change breaking news category to emphasize ‘real-time’ reporting

Nieman Journalism Lab: Could Pulitzer changes mean an award for live tweeting?

Associated Press: Pulitzer journalism entries to be submitted online

#soe11: Winners of NCTJ awards for excellence

The National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) today announced the winners of its awards for excellence in journalism, before an audience of editors at the Society of Editors conference.

The 11 winners are listed below:

Student news journalism of the year: Scarlett Wrench, junior sub- editor at Men’s Health

Trainee news journalism of the year: Rachel Butler, trainee journalist at the Derby Telegraph

Student sports journalism of the year: Tim Groves, Planet Rugby/freelance

Trainee sports journalism of the year: Rob Setchell, the Cambridgeshire Times/Wisbech Standard

Student features of the year: Jessica Baldwin, freelance features writer

Trainee features of the year: Kate Proctor, chief writer for Limited Edition, Westmorland Gazette

Student top scoop of the year: Larisa Brown, Daily Mail graduate trainee

Trainee top scoop of the year: Andrew Dickens, Cambridge News trainee

Photographer of the year: Matthew Harrison, freelance

Reporter of the year: Robert Alderson, online editor for It’s Nice That

Student journalist of the year: Rosie Taylor, Daily Mail trainee reporter

The Guardian Awards for Digital Innovation open for entries

The Guardian has today (Monday, 24 October) launched its re-branded award scheme, with a focus of creative uses of technology.

The 2012 Guardian Awards for Digital Innovation has new categories including ‘best new website’, ‘tech guru of the year’ and the ‘best new app’.

Called the 2012 Megas, the scheme has adapted “to celebrate and recognise creative achievements and inspiring entrepreneurial spirit within the field of technology”, the Guardian said in a release.

The announcement said:

The 2012 Guardian Awards for Digital Innovation, which began in 2008 as the MediaGuardian Innovation Awards, will focus on cutting-edge digital accomplishments, in line with Guardian News & Media’s digital-first strategy, announced earlier this year. For the first time, one of the winners will get the rare opportunity to guest-edit the Guardian’s MediaGuardian website for a day.

Chair of the judging panel Dan Sabbagh, Guardian News & Media’s head of media & technology, said in the release:

These awards have championed a variety of digital innovations since 2008. Our past winners are testament to the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of the UK’s digital scene, and with more free-to-enter categories than ever before, I’m looking forward to hearing about the wide range of inspiring projects that are out there. Offering one winner the opportunity to guest edit the MediaGuardian website is a new move for us, and I’m sure this will result in some fascinating issues being covered on our website once the winners are announced next year.

The judging panel for the awards includes Wired editor-at-large Ben Hammersley and TV presenter Aleks Krotoski.

The closing date for applications is 5pm on Friday, 20 January. The winners will be announced in March 2012 at a presentation ceremony in London.

The new categories are:

Free to enter

  • Tech guru of the year (sponsored by Creative Industries Knowledge Transfer Network)
  • Young innovator of the year (sponsored by Wired)
  • Best startup business (sponsored by Taylor Wessing)
  • Best startup leader / CEO

£200 per entry

  • Best new website
  • Best new app
  • Best digital campaign – communications, marketing & PR
  • Best use of technology for social change

There is more information at Guardian.co.uk/megas, including a list of previous winners.