The 65th Annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program Championship, organized by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation was held in San Francisco from May 31 - June 6, 2025. The Championship comprises writing, photojournalism, audio, television, multimedia, and podcast categories and included 29 competitors. (© Photo by Jakub Mosur)
The 65th Annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program Championship, organized by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation was held in San Francisco from May 31 - June 6, 2025. The Championship comprises writing, photojournalism, audio, television, multimedia, and podcast categories and included 29 competitors. (© Photo by Jakub Mosur)
The 65th Annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program Championship, organized by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation was held in San Francisco from May 31 - June 6, 2025. The Championship comprises writing, photojournalism, audio, television, multimedia, and podcast categories and included 29 competitors. (© Photo by Jakub Mosur)
The 65th Annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program Championship, organized by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation was held in San Francisco from May 31 - June 6, 2025. The Championship comprises writing, photojournalism, audio, television, multimedia, and podcast categories and included 29 competitors. (© Photo by Erin Lubin)
The 65th Annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program Championship, organized by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation was held in San Francisco from May 31 - June 6, 2025. The Championship comprises writing, photojournalism, audio, television, multimedia, and podcast categories and included 29 competitors. (© Photo by Jakub Mosur)
The 65th Annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program Championship, organized by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation was held in San Francisco from May 31 - June 6, 2025. The Championship comprises writing, photojournalism, audio, television, multimedia, and podcast categories and included 29 competitors. (© Photo by Jakub Mosur)
The 65th Annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program Championship, organized by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation was held in San Francisco from May 31 - June 6, 2025. The Championship comprises writing, photojournalism, audio, television, multimedia, and podcast categories and included 29 competitors. (© Photo by Jakub Mosur)
The 65th Annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program Championship, organized by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation was held in San Francisco from May 31 - June 6, 2025. The Championship comprises writing, photojournalism, audio, television, multimedia, and podcast categories and included 29 competitors. (© Photo by Erin Lubin)
The 65th Annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program Championship, organized by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation was held in San Francisco from May 31 - June 6, 2025. The Championship comprises writing, photojournalism, audio, television, multimedia, and podcast categories and included 29 competitors. (© Photo by Erin Lubin)

Writing Photojournalism Audio Television Multimedia

2026 National Championships

May 30 – June 5, 2026

The 66th annual Hearst National Journalism Awards Championship is the culmination of the 2025-2026 monthly competitions in writing, photojournalism, audio, television,
multimedia and podcast which this year garnered 1,353 entries from 99 universities nationwide.

From May 30 – June 5, 2026, 29 journalism finalists – top winners from the monthly competitions – gathered in San Francisco to
demonstrate their skills by producing stories based on topics selected by the program judges. The finalists represented 16 journalism schools across the country.

The journalists spent the week in San Francisco producing audio and video pieces, multimedia stories, photo essays and articles which were then evaluated by the program judges to determine the winners. Finalist were vying for awards of up to $10,000 for the work produced at the Championship.

The judges reviewed the finalists’ work Thursday morning, and winners were announced that evening at the Championship awards ceremony held in the Gold Ballroom of San Francisco’s historic Palace hotel.