2017-18 Hearst Breaking News Writing Competition Winners Named

2018 HEARST BREAKING NEWS WRITING WINNERS NAMED

San Francisco – The top 10 winners in breaking news writing were announced today in the 58th annual William Randolph Hearst Foundation’s Journalism Awards Program, in which 105 undergraduate journalism programs at universities across the nation are eligible to participate. There were 94 entries from 53 schools.

First Place has been awarded to JESSE SCHECKNER, from Florida International University. Jesse receives a $3,000 scholarship for the winning article titled “FIU bridge near MMC campus collapses, killing and injuring several, just five days after being built” published in South Florida News Service.

Florida International University’s School of Journalism and Communication will receive a matching grant, as do the journalism departments of all scholarship winners. Jesse also qualifies to participate in the Hearst National Writing Championship which will be held this June in San Francisco.

Other scholarship winners are:
Megan Janetsky, Arizona State University, second place, $2,000 scholarship
Chris Bowling, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, third place, $1,500 scholarship
Jimena Tavel, University of Florida, fourth place, $1,000 scholarship,
Abby Murphy, University of Florida, fifth place, $1,000 scholarship

The sixth-through-tenth place winners receiving certificates of merit are:
Alison Kuznitz, Pennsylvania State University, sixth place
Dekota Gregory, Oklahoma State University, seventh place
Samantha Lauriello, Pennsylvania State University, eighth place
Lydia Taylor, Kent State University, ninth place
Carley Lanich, Indiana University, tenth place

Indiana University has won the Intercollegiate Writing Competition with the highest accumulated student points in the five writing competitions held this year. They are followed by: Pennsylvania State University; University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Syracuse University; Western Kentucky University; University of Florida; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Arizona State University; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Oklahoma State University. The three top winners earn $10,000, $4,000 and $2,000 respectively.

Judging the writing competitions this year are: Audrey Cooper, Editor in Chief, The San Francisco Chronicle; David Zeeck, President and Publisher, The News Tribune, WA, and Wendell Jamieson, former Metro Editor, The New York Times.

The Hearst Journalism Awards Program is conducted under the auspices of accredited schools of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication and fully funded and administered by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. The 14 monthly competitions consist of five writing, two photojournalism, one radio, two television and four multimedia, with Championship finals in all divisions. The program awards up to $700,000 in scholarships and grants annually.