SPJ Awards Program Set for June 18; Nominate for Top Rookie, First Freedom Award

This year's SPJ Excellence in Journalism Awards will be presented Saturday, June 18, in Seattle.

The annual awards banquet, which recognizes the best in Northwest journalism, will be part of this year's SPJ Region 10 conference.

Watch for more details soon.

In a recent blog post, Region 10 Director Ethan Chung noted: "We are still finalizing final venue information, so watch the blog in the next few weeks for further information.

"I would love to hear your thoughts on programming. What do you want to learn about? Any specific speakers or workshops you’d like to see here at this year’s conference? Please feel free to pitch me.

"Special thanks to all those who volunteered to judge contest entries. Since our regional contest is one of the largest in the country, we have to judge the entries of three other contests in return. Two of those three assignments are completed, and we should receive the third by mid-April. If you signed up to judge the contest, but haven’t received assignments yet, please sit tight. You should receive them in the next week or two."

--

Nominate Your Rookie of the Year, First Freedom Award Candidates 

Now's the time to send your nominations for the Rookie of the Year and the First Freedom Award.

Rookie of the Year: This award goes to a journalist who had her or his first full-time reporting job during 2015. Internships do not count, but nominees can have been hired full-time at any point during the year.

Editors (or other co-workers) should submit a letter of recommendation and three clips.

Submissions should be sent to spjoregon@gmail.com

The deadline for submissions is 5 p.m. May 18.

Remember, in addition to the recognition, the Rookie of the Year winner receives a $500 cash award.

First Freedom Award: This award goes to a nonjournalist who has advocated for more open records and government in Oregon.

Examples in the past have included district attorneys, nonprofit groups and citizen bloggers. Nominations should demonstrate a tangible impact of some kind and should be sent to spjoregon@gmail.com.

The deadline also is 5 p.m. May 18.

Please forward this notice to anyone in your newsrooms who may be interested in either nominating someone for an award or attending the awards program in June.

# # #