🏆Now accepting nominations for the 2025 Excellence in NJ Local News Awards

Tell us about the reporting you’re most proud of this year!

It’s that time of the year again — the Center for Cooperative Media is now accepting submissions and nominations for the 2025 Excellence in NJ Local News Awards!

Last year, we were thrilled to honor some of the top local news organizations and journalists in the state of New Jersey. This year, we’re looking forward to recognizing even more outstanding work in local journalism.

The Excellence in NJ Local News Awards were created to recognize the important role that local news organizations play in their communities. These awards are an opportunity to celebrate the journalists and organizations doing exceptional work to inform and engage their readers and viewers.

🏆 Here’s how it works:

In previous years, we gave out awards in specific categories like engagement, investigative reporting, collaboration, journalism innovation, business sustainability, campus reporting, high school journalism, and overall journalistic excellence (partner of the year).

A couple years ago, however, we switched to a more open approach and did away with specific categories. Instead, we accept submissions on a much more broad, open basis.

🧾 What does this mean for the submission process?

It means we want you to submit your best work, your most challenging endeavor, or any project you worked on over the last year that you’re proud of and tell us why you think it should be recognized — irrespective of any particular category or type of reporting effort it involved.

Instead of asking you to try and squeeze your work into a specific set of categories, we just want you to tell us, in your own words, what you did and why you think it deserves recognition.

NOTE: You can still describe and justify your submission in traditional journalistic terms (e.g., “this project was a powerful example of local collaborative journalism”) and you can still emphasize the journalistic impact of your project (e.g., “as a result of our reporting, two public officials were forced to resign”) — you don’t have to identify a particular award category when you submit it.

In addition to the direct nominations we receive, the Center will also proactively seek out examples of excellent local journalism in New Jersey and draw from an internal list of examples we’ve been compiling over the last year. This means you or your publication may be selected to win an award even if you didn’t submit something for consideration.

Last year, we were blown away by the quality of the submissions and nominations that we received. We saw some truly impressive work from journalists and organizations across the state.

🏆 What kind of award will I receive if I win?

Up to 10 winners will all receive the same recognition: an award for Excellence in NJ Local News for work published in 2024. Each winning submission will include an explanation of why it was selected to receive an award.

Each winner will also receive a digital award badge that can be placed on the winner’s website and/or print publication, a certificate signed by the Center, and a $100 thank-you gift card.

⏲️ How can I apply and what is the deadline?

Click the button below or click here to access the submission form. The deadline for submissions is Friday, January 31, 2025, at 5:00 pm ET.

🤔 SUBMISSION GUIDELINES AND FAQs️:

☑️ Who is eligible to apply?

• The contest is open to New Jersey news and information providers.
• All reporting entries must focus on local topics related to New Jersey.
• All reporting entries must have been published, broadcast or otherwise disseminated in 2024.
• Work published or broadcast while working as a student or intern is eligible, as long as it was published or broadcast by a New Jersey news and information provider.
• Unpublished manuscripts, classroom exercises, and unaired news broadcasts do not qualify. Any work found to be unpublished, unaired, or a classroom exercise will be disqualified. A classroom exercise is defined as work assigned for a grade or fulfillment of a course requirement and is not eligible for an ELN award unless it was also published outside of class in the campus/local newspaper, campus/local broadcast stations, or website.

📋 Other general submission rules:

• Entries that are incomplete will be disqualified.
• Material submitted will not be returned.
• Winning entries will be referenced and linked from the Center for Cooperative Media’s website and other digital properties for publicity, educational, or other purposes.
• If it is not readily apparent, please mark the date of publication or broadcast on all items submitted.
• Be sure the name of each journalist who worked on the entry is listed as a collaborator on the entry form and that their names are spelled correctly.
• A maximum of four people can be named on a single team entry. Otherwise, the entry should be submitted in the name of the newspaper, magazine, station, or online news site.
• Scripts for broadcast entries are optional but recommended.

If you have any additional questions, comments, or concerns, please send an email to info@centerforcooperativemedia.org.

We are looking forward to seeing the impressive work that local news organizations and journalists in New Jersey have been doing. Thank you for your commitment to excellence in local journalism!

Joe Amditis is the associate director of operations at the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University. Contact him at amditisj@montclair.edu or on Bluesky at @jamditis.bsky.social.

About the Center for Cooperative Media: The Center is a grant-funded program of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. Its mission is to grow and strengthen local journalism, and in doing so serve New Jersey residents. The Center is supported with funding from Montclair State University, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, the New Jersey Local News Lab (a partnership of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, and Community Foundation of New Jersey), and the Abrams Foundation. For more information, visit centerforcooperativemedia.org.