HOW TO ENTER
This year's Journalism Award spotlights
great youth collaborations
that contribute to the survival of local news outlets.
DEADLINE: 16 JUNE 2025
WHO CAN ENTER
The competition is open to any kind of news organization in any country run by people of any age and on any platform. The news outlet must be serving a local community successfully, at least in part through a collaboration with young people (defined as through university age).
Candidates can be self-nominated or submitted by a third party nominator.
MORE ABOUT THIS AWARD
With this award we want to find, celebrate and spread the word about the lessons from the best cases of success in youth-local news media collaborations from around the world.
At the very minimum, "success" means a regular, discernible audience for the work secondary school, vocational and university-age reporters produce in news media that serve a wider local community than their classmates.
It’s even better if their efforts can be linked to financial sustainability.
And it's even better yet if you persuade us that not only is your approach is working in your market but also that the essence of what you do could be adapted for use elsewhere
First step : REGISTRATION
Before sending an entry, please register HERE
FORMAT & CONTENT
FOR THE ENTRY ITSELF
Your entry should take the form of a presentation pdf deck (created with PowerPoint, KeyNote, etc.) of no more than 10 MB. That is where you show us what you did and what challenge it addressed and how you know it's working.
Links are permitted within the deck to essential web-based material that is either in English or can be automatically translated (via Chrome, for example). Videos need to have English subtitles.
We strongly urge you to use extreme restraint with such extra material, providing only what advances your core argument of success. Think of this as a pitch to a very busy executive who wants to help you but who has very little time to think about you.
An additional plus of this approach is that you finish with a brand new presentation about your accomplishments that can be adapted to serve you well in other settings.
Before sending an entry, please register HERE
ENTRY CONTENT Be sure to include:
• A first slide that repeats the organization name and country, the very short description of the youth collaboration (what you put on the registration form will work) and the WhatsApp number and email of the person to contact if we have questions about the entry's content or format.
• Subsequent slides (as many as you need that yield a PDF file less than 10MB) that includes these these elements:
1. What you did and what prompted you to do it (Remember to include elements of innovation)
2. How you did it (what resources, personnel, challenges you overcame etc. Be sure to describe funding.)
3. How you know it worked (Provide clear evidence of impact: audience consumption, benefits for the youth collaborators as well as for your organization's survival, including financial. This is a key element.
4. What should happen next and advice for others who want to try it. Put your next steps here and what you might have done differently.
ENTRY FILENAME - Should be in this format:
ENTRY - JOURNALISM - [YOUR COUNTRY] - [YOUR ORGANIZATION]
ENTRY SUBMISSION - You will be instructed about where to send your entry once you have registered.
REMEMBER ! Before sending an entry, please register HERE
JUDGING CRITERIA Members of the international jury have been instructed to keep in mind three things:
1. Impact (70%) Evidence that what you are doing works thanks to involvement of the young, especially as evidenced by measurable impact on audience, finances, etc. This is the core aim.
2. Inspiration (15%) Transferability and adaptability of the idea for other countries.
3. Innovation (15%) Success of a new approach. This does not preclude an initiative that has been going on for some time that still produces excellent results thanks to adaptation to the times.
And REMEMBER: Before sending an entry, please register HERE
SOME TIPS
• Keep your entry specific to the theme (how a youth collaboration is helping your local outlet survive) rather than describing everything you do.
• Heavy photos can make your presentation huge. Aim for 72 DPI or 96 DPI. Then try to reduce the size of the PDF itself.
• Remember that the judges are all English speakers, so if an element is important for them to consider, translate it (ie: subtitles on a video) or provide a link to a summary in English
AWARD PARTNERS
These organizations are helping get the word out about and judge this edition of the Journalism Award.
