Ernie Pyle ACP Reporter of the Year recognizes great storytelling

In Partnership with the Erie Pyle Legacy Foundation and Scripps Howard, the new Ernie Pyle ACP Reporter of the Year award will award cash prizes to the top winners.

Student journalists will submit a human-interest feature story, a news story and a column. The published stories should reflect great storytelling built on strong journalism skills.

This award is named in honor of 1944 Pulitzer Prize-winner Ernie Pyle. Pyle was a unique reporter. His journalism skills covered a vast array of topics. He honed his skills on talking to people and telling their stories. Pyle had the ability to reach out and make folks feel comfortable sharing their good, as well as hard times. For the last 10 years of his life, Pyle’s columns ran six times a week, primarily in Scripps Howard Foundation newspapers.

“Ernie Pyle was such a gifted and unique storyteller that it is appropriate to name our ACP Reporter of the Year after this Pulitzer-winning journalist,” said Laura Widmer ACP executive director.

Cash prizes totaling $3,500, provided by the Ernie Pyle Legacy Foundation and Scripts Howard, will be awarded in both the two-year and four-year school categories:

  • Two first-place winners will receive $1,000.
  • Two second-place winners will receive $500.
  • Two third-place winners will receive $250.

 

GENERAL RULES

  • This contest is open only to student media with a current membership in ACP as of the contest deadline of June 7, 2019. Online submission of awards begins on December 3, 2018.
  • Any student on the staff of an ACP member media outlet is eligible to enter.
  • Entries must have been published in print or online between August 1, 2018 and June 7, 2019.
  • Only one entry per category per media outlet is allowed.
  • A single PDF file should be submitted containing a feature story, news story and column as they appeared in print. Links may be provided within the PDF for writing that appeared online. All writing must have been published in an ACP member media outlet.
  • The contest will be judged by a panel of three including two judges selected by ACP and a judge selected by the Ernie Pyle Legacy Foundation.
  • Finalists will be announced no later than October 1, 2019. Winners will be honored at the ACP/CMA National College Journalism Convention in Washington, D.C., Oct. 31-Nov. 3, 2019.