The deadline to enter the 2023 Showcase Award contest has passed. Please check back to this page later this year for information on entering your work in the 2024 contest.
Showcase Award Contest Criteria and Rules – Revised September 2023
The Showcase Investigative Award recognizes outstanding investigative journalism that has made a significant impact on Texas government, public policy, culture, or the conduct of a business, non-profit or other organization. Entries should demonstrate innovation and thoroughness in the reporting and presentation, such as written and visual storytelling, online elements, links, graphics, translations, documents, etc.
In their story summary, entrants should state clearly the impact of their reporting. Entrants should also explain their news gathering and reporting process – i.e., use of open records, data mining, time spent, journalism partnerships, extra efforts taken, etc.
Judges will evaluate the impact, difficulty and thoroughness of the reporting as well as the clarity and comprehensiveness of the presentation.
The Showcase Storytelling Award recognizes outstanding journalism whose content uses compelling storytelling to shed new light on an aspect of Texas and Texans, including their evolving culture and history. Innovative and lucid non-fiction storytelling using multiple tools is encouraged, including audio, podcasting, photography, graphics and illustration, video and broadcast news, articles in print or digital formats, and social media. This category is NOT for investigative journalism.
Judges will consider a broad range of journalistic areas including but not limited to explanatory journalism, features, profiles in single piece or a series. Judges will evaluate the clarity, sophistication, compelling engagement, thoroughness and innovation of the reporting and presentation.
In both Showcase categories, judges will consider the size and resources of the news organization.
Contest Rules
For both the investigative and storytelling awards, submissions must
· be from a professional Texas-based news provider – print, broadcast or digital – that distributes at least monthly and that adheres to the highest journalistic principles. Also eligible are Texas-based journalists whose organizations have permanent news bureaus in Texas. The Headliners Foundation reserves the right to determine who meets such criteria.
· be originally published/aired between Jan. 1, 2023, and Dec. 31, 2023. Follow-up stories published in the following year that show impact of reporting or add new relevant information may be included.
· be limited to three entries per organization. Each entry may include up to eight stories or elements. If elements were produced in partnership with other news organizations, please specify how the work was divided.
Broadcast and podcast entries may not exceed 90 minutes. If the original work exceeded 90 minutes, the submitting organization may enter the first episode; a second, most representative episode; some combination of first and most representative episodes; or an edited overview of the entire work.
· be submitted by qualifying news organizations or reporters, editors and other members of the professional media community.
· provide an active link to a PDF format or online page that can be publicly accessed without a paywall or registration and which remains active through the year following initial publication.
· be submitted by the posted entry deadline.
Commentary, editorials and persuasive writing will not be considered as the main entry but may be included as supporting material. Judges reserve the right to determine the appropriate category (investigative or storytelling) for any entry.
The Headliners Foundation encourages media partnerships in developing important journalism projects; however, formal entries for Showcase must be restricted to the work of the entering organization and not include stories done by outside partners.
Judging and Awards
Winners of the Showcase Awards will be announced in the spring after the year of initial publication and will be honored at the Foundation’s Mike Quinn Awards Luncheon in the fall. These awards will be in addition to the awards presented each year by the Foundation in partnership with the Texas Association of Broadcasters (TAB) and the Texas Managing Editors (TME). Media outlets that take part in the TAB and TME competitions are also eligible for the Showcase Award and runner-up prizes, but must enter the Showcase competition separately and comply with the rules of the Showcase Award contest.
Submitting an entry for this award is easy:
Entries are accepted during the specified entry period and must be submitted by the published deadline. Entries may be submitted by qualifying news organizations or reporters, editors and other members of the professional media community. If an organization transmits more than three entries during the contest period, it will be asked to select a maximum of three for final judging. Winning entries will be posted in the Showcase section of the Headliners Foundation website.
Complete the submission form. Be sure to include your contact information, entry details with a link to your story or package of stories, videos and other elements. Your link must be active, or you must provide login credentials for the judges.
There is no entry fee.
The Showcase Gold winning entry in each category will receive a $2,000 cash prize to be distributed among up to five journalists. The Showcase Silver winner entries in each category will receive a $1,000 cash prize to be distributed among up to five journalists.
If your reporting continues after submitting your entry, you may update it.
We take pride in honoring and showcasing the best journalism in Texas, by Texas journalists. We look forward to seeing your great work!
Policy for Professional Excellence Programs with Cash Awards
The Foundation believes it essential to reward journalists directly for their work. Awards are made payable to an individual or, when a team produced the entry, each of the key members (maximum 5). In the event a media outlet disallows such direct payments to journalists, the money will instead be utilized by the Foundation to fund journalism education. Award winners will still receive non-monetary recognition from the Foundation.”