Deadline Extended for Sunshine State Awards

SPJ South Florida has decided to extend the deadline for its 19th Annual Sunshine State Awards until 5 p.m. Monday, March 4. This gives journalists an extra two weekends to submit their entries. SPJ Members get one entry free.

This year we’ve launched several new awards, including:

1.     Journalist of the Year: honoring a journalist with the most outstanding body of work during 2012.
2.     Diversity Award: honoring a journalist of color or sexual minority, which supports one of SPJ’s core missions of encouraging diversity in journalism.
3.     Freedom of Information Award: honoring a journalist or news organization for outstanding use of public records in reporting or advocacy of rights such as press freedom and public access.
4.     Public Corruption Reporting: honoring a journalist or news organization for exposing government corruption.
5.     Anchor of the Year: honoring an anchor with the most outstanding body of work during 2012.
In addition, we’ve brought back our election categories in both our print and broadcast divisions. Other additions include Best Single Issue for magazines; Infographic in our design division; Best Series in print, and three new beat reporting categories, Minority Issues, Consumer Reporting and Children’s Issues. We’ve also brought back by popular demand our Arts Criticism category, which we had eliminated last year. Lastly we’ve broken up our feature category into large and small.
Awards that are staying the same include:
1. James Batten Award for Public Service: Named in honor of late Knight-Ridder Chairman and CEO James Batten, a champion of “civic journalism.” Entries must contribute to the public good by correcting a wrong, bringing to light an issue or adding significantly to the public debate.
2. Gene Miller Award for Investigative Reporting: Named in honor of late Miami Herald reporter and editor Gene Miller. Investigative reporting in the public interest, in a single report or a series. Stories should be original reporting that exposes a wrong or promotes understanding of a problem, issue, or subject in the public interest.

In total there are more than 60 categories to choose from. Divisions include: All-media, newspaper, photography and design, magazine, television, radio and online.
Submit your entries online today. Mark your calendars; deadline is 5 p.m. Monday, March 4. The competition is open to all print, broadcast and online journalists in the state of Florida. Find out more about the awards. Read the awards categories here.
The competition recognizes quality journalism in the best tradition of our profession. Out-of-state journalists will judge all entries and may award first-, second- and third-place honors in each category.