HEARST JOURNALISM AWARDS ANNOUNCES SCHOLARSHIP INCREASES
San Francisco – The William Randolph Hearst Foundation Board of Directors is dramatically increasing its commitment to the future of journalism through substantial scholarship increases to students and universities competing in the Hearst Journalism Awards. Representing an increase of nearly 50 percent, more than $650,000 will be provided annually in scholarships, grants and stipends by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation to the winning journalism students and accredited journalism undergraduate universities in the United States.
First place scholarship awards in the 14 monthly competitions will be increased to $3,000, and matched by grants to the colleges of all winning students. The Championship awards will be increased to $5,000 for third place, $7,500 for second place and $10,000 for first place in all categories.
In addition, the Overall Intercollegiate Winner will be awarded $25,000, which is the school with the highest total accumulated points in the competitions.
The most significant increase – intended to encourage participation in the competitions – stipends to the participating schools have been increased to $250 per competition entered. Each school can generate $3,500 by entering all 14 competitions each academic year.
Paul “Dino” Dinovitz, Hearst Foundation executive director, remarked “This significant increase of awards was established to encourage participation in our program and provide a boost to future journalists and journalism schools at this important time”.
Created in 1960 to encourage and support excellence in journalism and education, the Hearst Journalism Awards Program celebrates its 58th year by offering monthly competitions in writing, photojournalism, radio, television and multimedia digital news. Top winners in all categories compete in the San Francisco National Championship Finals for additional scholarship awards.
Distinguished journalists from publishing, broadcast and digital news organizations volunteer their services in judging the monthly entries, and the San Francisco Championship Finals to evaluate the student finalists who are given on-the-spot assignments under strict deadlines.
The Hearst Journalism Awards Program has been funded annually by the William Randolph Hearst Foundations since 1960, with more than $30 million granted to support the program and the outstanding student journalists who excel in the competitions.
The William Randolph Hearst Foundation was established by its namesake in 1948 exclusively for educational and charitable purposes. Since then, The Hearst Foundations have granted more than $1.1 billion dollars to education, health, culture and social services nationally.
The Hearst Journalism Awards Program – often referred to as the Pulitzers of college journalism – is conducted with the support of the accredited schools of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC).
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