San Francisco – Winners have been announced in the 2025-2026 Hearst Journalism Awards Program’s Podcast competition. There were 61 entries from 41 universities submitted in the final competition of the academic year.

First Place is awarded to Phoebe Gulsen, a senior at Syracuse University. Phoebe receives a $3,000 award and qualifies to attend the National Championships, which will take place in June 2026 in San Francisco.

Second-through-fifth place finalists:
Second Place, $2,000 award, Gowri Abhinanda, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Third Place, $1,500 award, Shane Darling, Marshall University
Fourth Place, $1,000 award, Rachel Moody, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Fifth Place, $1,000 award, Bayliss Flynn, University of Montana

The top five winning schools receive matching grants.

Sixth-through-tenth place finalists:
Sixth Place, certificate, Erika Konig, University of Memphis
Seventh Place, certificate, Kate Myers, Mississippi State University
Eighth Place, certificate, Alex Walters, Michigan State University
Ninth Place, certificate, Brycen Pace, Syracuse University
Tenth Place, certificate, Jenna Outcalt, University of Connecticut

Syracuse University has won the Intercollegiate Broadcast Competition, with the highest accumulated student points from the two television, one audio and one podcast competitions.
Following in the rankings are:
University of Missouri
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Florida
Arizona State University
University of Memphis
Pennsylvania State University
Mississippi State University
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Marshall University

The top three universities in the Intercollegiate Broadcast Competition will $10,000, $5,000, and $2,500 in prizes.

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.