Hearst Audio News/Features Competition Winners Announced
San Francisco – Winners have been announced in the 2024-2025 Hearst Journalism Awards Program’s Audio News/Features Competition. Five audio winners qualify for the National Championships in June, along with
qualifying writing, photojournalism, television, and multimedia finalists.
There were 57 entries from 36 universities submitted in this competition.
The top audio winners are:
First Place, $3,000 award, Henry Taylor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Second Place, $2,000 award, Pierce Gentry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Third Place, $1,500 award, Haley Swaino, Ohio University
Fourth Place, $1,000 award, Layli Nazarova, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Fifth Place, $1,000 award, Blake Mace, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
The schools of the top five award-winning finalists receive matching grants.
The five qualifying National Audio Championship finalists:
Henry Taylor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Pierce Gentry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Layli Nazarova, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Blake Mace, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Julia Boboc, University of Oregon
The sixth-through-tenth place finalists are:
Sixth Place, certificate, Julia Boboc, University of Oregon
Seventh Place, certificate, Erika Konig, University of Memphis
Eighth Place, certificate, Ailee Shanes, University of Florida
Ninth Place, certificate, Ben Miller, University of Missouri
Tenth Place, certificate, Sofia Casini, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of Missouri is in first place in the Intercollegiate Broadcast Competition with the highest
accumulated student points from the broadcast competitions held thus far.
They are followed by: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Arizona State University; University of Florida; Western Kentucky University; University of Nebraska-Lincoln; University of Tennessee, Knoxville (tie); University of Maryland (tie); University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (tie); Michigan State University (tie).
The top three intercollegiate winners earn $10,000, $5,000 and $2,500 respectively, and will be announced after the completion of the broadcast competitions and presented at the National Championships in San Francisco this June.
The audio judges are: Candy Altman, retired Vice President of News, Hearst Television; Holly Quan, Reporter/Anchor, KCBS Radio; Jeff Bartlett, retired President and General Manager, WMUR-TV.
The 65th annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program includes four writing, two photo, one audio, two television, one podcast and four multimedia competitions offering up to $700,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends. Currently, there are 105 universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs are eligible to participate in the Hearst competitions.
