Audio

Audio Guidelines

  • Each university may submit two entrants’ work in this competition.
  • Audio entrants must be undergraduate journalism majors attending a university with an ACEJMC-accredited journalism program or must be recent graduates of said program.
  • Spring, summer or fall 2022 graduates may enter the 2022-2023 competitions but would not be eligible to participate in the 2023 Championship.
  • The entries must have been published before the students were graduated.
  • An entry consists of at least two distinct reports, totaling no more than SEVEN minutes, originating with and produced by the entrant.
  • The reports must have been “aired” in the sense of having been made available to an anonymous audience of substantial size on a station or online or both.
  • The reports should be submitted as aired, and not edited substantially for the entry time limit. If a report is longer than the entry time limit, the entrant may enter an edited excerpt.
  • Entrants must demonstrate their editing skills on at least one report.
  • If the entry is included in a professional website or a professional station’s newscast, the producer or
    news director must certify in writing that it is primarily the entrant’s work.
  • Entrants who qualify for the Championship may not enter another competition.
  • An entrant who has won first place in the Audio Championship is not eligible to compete in future audio competitions.
  • An entry submitted once may not be resubmitted in any other competition or in any other competition year.

How to Enter

Audio Competition

Audio News and/or Features

Entries must be coverage of breaking or developing news stories, and/or non-deadline news, non-deadline
reporting of personalities, events, or issues. Entries may be based on but not limited to public affairs, business,
investigations, science, sports or weather.

Each entry must consist of at least two reports. The competition category is News and/or Features.
The time limit is seven minutes total.

If the reports are part of a longer newscast, an excerpt may be entered.

Audio entries disseminated in a newscast and/or a podcast are accepted.

Please note the new definition for podcast entries:
Podcasts entries must follow the journalistic standards of storytelling based on facts, include reporting and audio interviews and time limitations, and reflect the long-established journalistic criteria of excellence. Entries must be produced primarily by the entrant.

If the podcast entries are longer than seven minutes, the judges will review a seven-minute segment, which must be indicated by the entrant.

Entries may be accompanied by multimedia versions of the reports entered if they were produced primarily by the entrant.

Entries must have been disseminated on air or online or both from September 1, 2022 through January 16, 2024.

DEADLINE: Entries must be received by January 16, 2024.

National Audio Championship

This event is open to the top five winners (unless graduated the previous year) from the Audio News and/or Features Competition.
Dates: June 1-7, 2024.

Judging

Audio entries are judged based on the following criteria:

  • Writing
  • Reporting
  • Editing
  • Clarity
  • Depth
  • Knowledge of subject
  • Production values
  • Originality
  • Human interest