2013 National Championship

June 3-7, 2013

The 53rd annual Hearst National Journalism Awards Championship was the culmination of the 2012-2013 monthly competitions. 29 finalists with top scores in those 14 competitions gathered in San Francisco to demonstrate their skills in on-the-spot assignments and compete for additional scholarship awards of up to $5,000. The writing, photojournalism, radio broadcast, television broadcast and multimedia finalists, along with program judges, journalism deans, and special guests convened the first week of June for this special event.

The eight writing finalists interviewed California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom. They wrote a news story based on the interview and a personality/profile article. In addition, they researched and wrote an on-the-spot article about the difficulty of finding a place to live given the city’s current tight rental market. The photo finalists were given two assignments: a picture story about immigration and a single spot news image. The radio and television finalists’ assignment was to find a story about the value and credibility of on-air predictions.
The multimedia finalists’ assignment was to find a story that answered the question: What is the real San Francisco?

The judges reviewed the finalists’ pieces Thursday, June 6th, and the winners were announced that evening at the final awards ceremony.