San Francisco – Winners have been announced in the 2025-2026 Hearst Journalism Awards Program’s Television News competition. There were a record 85 entries from 52 universities submitted in our second television
competition of the year.
First Place is awarded to Bernardo Montás, a senior at the University of Florida. Bernardo receives a $3,000 award and qualifies for the National Television Championship, which will take place in June 2026 in San Francisco.
Second-through-fifth place finalists:
Second Place, $2,000 award, Moira Vaughan, Syracuse University
Third Place, $1,500 award, Ellie Compton, University of Missouri
Fourth Place, $1,000 award, Juan Carlos Chaoui, University of Florida
Fifth Place, $1,000 award, Lauren Morris, Temple University
The top five winning schools also receive matching grants.
Sixth-through-tenth place finalists:
Sixth Place, certificate, Eddy Calkins, University of Maryland
Seventh Place, certificate, Abigail Klinkerman, University of Missouri
Eighth Place, certificate, Jax Crall, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Ninth Place, certificate, Olivia Bennett, Eastern Illinois University
Tenth Place, certificate, Macy Markham, Arizona State University
In the Intercollegiate Broadcast Competition, the University of Missouri is currently in the lead with the highest accumulated student points after the first of four broadcast competitions.
Following in the rankings are:
Syracuse University
University of Florida
Arizona State University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Temple University
University of Maryland
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Pennsylvania State University
The top three universities in the Intercollegiate Broadcast Competition will earn $10,000, $5,000, and $2,500 in prizes, with final results announced in May after the completion of the podcast competition.
The competition’s judges included Candy Altman, retired Vice President of News at Hearst Television; Jeff Bartlett, retired President and General Manager of WMUR-TV; and Scott Herman, Chairman, 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.
