2001 National Championship
June 7-12, 2001
The 41st Annual National Hearst Journalism Awards Championship was the culmination of the 2000-2001 monthly competitions. 24 finalists with top scores in those competitions were brought to San Francisco to demonstrate their abilities in on-the-spot assignments and compete for additional scholarship awards. The writing, photojournalism, radio broadcast and television broadcast finalists, along with program judges, Journalism Deans, and special guests convened the second week of June for this unique event.
The writing finalists interviewed The Director of the Sierra Club, Carl Pope, and produced a news story and a personality/profile about their subject. In addition, they researched and wrote an on-the-spot article about the Haight-Ashbury street fair. The photo finalists were given seven assignments: an on-the-spot news photo, an event coverage image, a feature photo for the metro section, a humor photo, an entertainment photo for the weekend section, an image of SF after dark, and a “postcard” image from the city. The radio finalists were assigned a story about the dot com boom while the television finalists’ assignment was on the California energy crisis.
The judges received the completed articles, images, and tapes by the morning of June 12th for review. The winners were announced that evening at the awards ceremony.