Q&A: What makes a strong Journalism Excellence Awards submission?

We are now accepting submissions for the 2025 AAJA Journalism Excellence Awards and Community Awards. For more than 30 years, our awards have celebrated journalism in a wide range of topics and in a variety of formats – all written, edited, or produced by AAJA members. To learn more and submit your application, visit awards.aaja.org

AAJA awards are an excellent opportunity to reflect on and celebrate your work and your accomplishments. Not only are award wins useful for your portfolio, work evaluations, future applications and more -- winners of AAJA awards are highlighted on our website and social media accounts and honored at our annual convention, during which recipients are invited to receive their award on stage at our annual gala.

Whether it’s your first time submitting an entry or your twentieth, we hope our FAQ and the Q&A below help as you work on your submission. We’ve asked a number of AAJA judges to give their tips on what makes a strong Journalism Excellence Awards submission.

Explain the work

Introduce your work to the screeners and judges. We often have to read, listen or watch dozens of entries and while most work is relatively self-explanatory, you can better ensure we grasp the nuance or importance of the work by articulating it clearly. Why did you choose to write this article, shoot this video or profile this subject? What makes this an interesting and impactful piece of journalism?

Your judges may not be as familiar with your beat, market or your publication, so it’s a good idea to explain these factors. We encourage you to also explain how your submission is different from other work on your beat or in your medium.

Explain the process

Tied closely to “explaining your work,” be sure to explain how your work was produced.

Did you sift through hundreds of pages of meeting minutes and records? Interview dozens of people? Conduct interviews in multiple languages or dialects? Wait eight hours in the rain for the perfect shot? Did you experiment with innovative technologies or storytelling techniques? Was this journalism created under exceptional or unique circumstances?

These are just some of the factors that can’t always be seen in your finished product. Give us some behind-the-scenes details -- judges want to hear about it.

Impact

There are many ways your piece may have made an impact. Was it read by thousands and shared widely on social media? These metrics are a compelling point to include in your awards submission. Reach out to your social media editors, audience or analytics teams to get some of these numbers for your submission.

Your journalism can also have an impact with communities and individuals. Was it praised by a community or advocacy group? Did you or your newsroom receive feedback on the piece? All of these are signs of impact and can bolster your submission.

Finally, did your article affect change? Did it force a company, organization or government to change policy or pay attention to a particular issue? We want to hear about that too.

What to know about judging

Judging AAJA awards is a fulfilling way to give back to the community. It gives us a direct glimpse into the talent within AAJA and it’s something we look forward to every year. If you’re interested in being a judge or screener this year, apply at https://awards.aaja.org/become-a-judge.

What about Community Awards?

This Q&A mostly focused on submissions for our Journalism Excellence Awards, which honor the best journalism by AAJA members in 2024. Submit your work for these awards by February 12, 2025.

Our Community Awards, meanwhile, aim to celebrate the outstanding contributions of AAJA members, chapters, affinity groups and changemakers who have left a lasting impact on our community in 2024. More information about these awards can be found here. Community Awards nominations are open until March 12, 2025.

We hope that these tips help with your awards submission.