San Francisco – Winners have been announced in the 2025-2026 Hearst Journalism Awards Program’s Audio News and/or Features Competition. Five audio winners qualify for the National Championships in June, along with qualifying television, writing, photojournalism and multimedia finalists.
There were a record 78 entries from 51 universities submitted in this competition.
The top audio winners are:
First Place, $3,000 award, Boone Kilpatrick, Syracuse University *
Second Place, $2,000 award, Evan Fay, Syracuse University *
Third Place, $1,500 award, Julia Boboc, University of Oregon *
Fourth Place, $1,000 award, Sofia Zarran, University of Florida
Fifth Place, $1,000 award, Maddie Policastro, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill *
Sixth Place, certificate, Erika Konig, University of Memphis *
* These finalists qualify for the 2026 National Audio Championship this June.
The seventh-through-tenth place finalists are:
Seventh Place, certificate, Lilley Halloran, University of Missouri
Eighth Place, certificate, Pierce Gentry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Ninth Place, certificate, Kierra Evans, Louisiana State University
Tenth Place, certificate, Shane Darling, Marshall University
The University of Missouri is currently in the lead with the highest accumulated student points in the Intercollegiate Broadcast Competition.
Following in the rankings are:
Syracuse University
University of Florida
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Arizona State University
University of Tennessee, Knoxville-tie
University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign-tie
Pennsylvania State University
University of Oregon
Mississippi State University
The top three intercollegiate winners earn $10,000, $5,000 and $2,500 respectively, and will be announced after the completion of Broadcast competitions and presented at the National Championships in San Francisco this June.
The competition’s broadcast judges are Candy Altman, retired Vice President of News at Hearst Television; Jeff Bartlett, retired President and General Manager of WMUR-TV; and Scott Herman, Chairman of Broadcasters Foundation of America.
The Hearst Journalism Awards Program, now in its 66th year, added broadcast journalism competitions in 1988. In addition to the broadcast competitions, the program also includes four writing, two photojournalism, and four multimedia competitions, offering up to $700,000 in scholarships, matching grants, and stipends. The program is open to accredited undergraduate journalism programs from 104 universities within the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication.
