The Hearst Student Journalism Awards Program, founded in 1960, provide support, encouragement, and assistance to journalism education at the college and university level. The program awards scholarships to students for outstanding performance in college-level journalism, with matching grants to the students’ schools.

The 60th annual program offering up to $700,000 in awards, consists of five monthly writing competitions, two photojournalism competitions, one radio competition, two television competitions, and four multimedia competitions – with championship finals in all divisions.

Participation in the program is open to undergraduate journalism majors currently enrolled in ACEJMC – accredited domestic universities. Moreover, entrants participating in the Hearst Student Journalism Awards must be an active journalist involved in campus media. Further, s/he must have articles, photographs or newscasts or multimedia pieces published in the paper/digital media.

Hearst Student Journalism Awards

The students winning the Hearst Student Journalism Awards will receive an equivalent amount in scholarship. The students will compete in monthly journalism competition, championship competition and intercollegiate competition.

The overall winner of the monthly journalism competition will receive a scholarship amount of $3,000. The student coming up in the second place will receive $2,000, while the third-place winner will receive $1,500. Further, fourth and fifth place winner will receive $1,000 worth scholarship.

Further, the overall winner of the championship journalism competition will receive a scholarship amount of $10,000. The second-place winner will receive $7,500 while the third-place winner will receive $5,000. Further, the finalists of the championship will receive $1,500 each.

The intercollegiate journalism award for the first place is worth $10,000 while the second and the third-place awards are worth $4,000 and $2,000. Further, the overall winner of the intercollegiate competition will receive a grand prize of $25,000.

Further, the Hearst Journalism Awards are awarded to students in the following categories:

• Article of the Year: $1,000
• Best Reporting technique – writing: $1,000
• Best Photo Portfolio: $1,000
• Best Single Photo: $1,000
• Best use of Radio for News Coverage: $1,000
• Best use of TV for News Coverage: $1,000
• Multimedia Story of the Year: $1,000

Eligibility for the Hearst Student Journalism Awards

• Only member colleges and universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communications (ASJMC) with accredited undergraduate journalism-mass communication programs, and located in the United States or its possessions, are eligible to participate.
• No more than two entrants from each university may enter each competition except in the Team Multimedia
  Storytelling competition.
• Students who participate in the writing, radio, television and/or multimedia competitions must be duly enrolled, undergraduate majors in the accredited unit at the time the entry is published, aired or posted. Photo entrants, however, may be from outside of the accredited unit.
• Spring, summer or fall 2019 graduates may enter the contests in the 2019-2020 program year. The spring or summer 2019 graduates would NOT be eligible to compete in the 2020 National Championship. The entries must have been published/aired/posted before students were graduated.
• Pre-majors are eligible to enter as long as the entrant confirms the intention to declare a major in the
  accredited unit and the school verifies this fact.
• The competitions are not open to high school students, graduate students, or undergraduate journalism majors who already have one year or more of full-time professional experience-or its equivalent.
• Students who major in the accredited unit but enrolled in an authorized international study-abroad program and receiving credit from their home universities are also eligible.
• A writing entrant may not enter another writing competition after receiving a first-place scholarship or two second-through-fifth-place scholarships.
• A photo entrant may not enter another photo competition after receiving the first-through-fifth place in any of the two photo competitions.
• A radio or television entrant may not enter another broadcast competition after receiving the first-through-fifth place in any of the broadcast competitions.
• A multimedia entrant may not enter another multimedia competition after receiving first place in any of the multimedia competitions.

How to apply for the Hearst Journalism Awards?

To participate in the Hearst Student Journalism Competition, candidates must contact the chair of the accredited department if you are interested in participating in the monthly competitions.

Deadlines

The Hearst Student Journalism Award runs from October 2019 to April 2020. Hence, different journalism competition has a different deadline. For the deadline please visit the website.