Freelance Journalism Awards 🏆
Freelance Journalism Awards 🏆
We're launching the UK's first dedicated competition for freelance journalists
You read that right. We are launching the inaugural Freelance Journalism Awards! We are super excited to announce that the awards will open next month and the winners will be announced in June.
These awards have been a long time coming. Back in late 2020 we began knocking around the idea of launching a freelance journalism awards to celebrate all the writers and reporters who are often overlooked by traditional awards or cannot afford to enter. We felt freelance journalists deserved the recognition of their employed counterparts but all too often they were reduced to one or two categories within a wider industry award selection.
Then in 2021 the fantastic Freelance Writing Awards were launched and although this was not specifically targeted at journalists there was considerable overlap with our idea. So we decided to regroup and wait until the time was right.
As we entered 2023 we felt that now more than ever freelance journalists needed a boost. There are freelance reporters on the front line in the Ukraine, freelance journalists helping the public navigate the cost of living crisis and freelance broadcasters creating innovative ways to reach new audiences through podcasting and social media channels.
And so, we felt now is the right time. It is time that freelance journalists are recognised as the backbone of reporting in the UK. It is time their expertise, experience and perseverance is rewarded. It is time for freelance journalists to shine. It is time that freelance journalists had their own awards - not just a category.
How it will work
The next question was how are we going to do this? FFJ is a very small team and a huge part of our ethos is that working as a journalist doesn't mean you have to work in London. We live in Leicestershire and Sheffield and the idea of holding a ceremony in London didn't sit right with us. So we decided to keep things simple.
We will be using this newsletter plus our podcast and social channels to facilitate the awards. There will be an external panel of judges made up of freelance journalists who will decide the winner for each category. The winners will be announced via this newsletter and invited onto our podcast series to talk about their work.
We will open to entries in early April and there will be a number of different categories covering news, features, print, broadcast, early career and more. The awards will be free to enter and we welcome entries from newbies and experienced freelance journalists alike, as long as you are based in the UK.
Fortunately we have been able to secure a number of fantastic sponsors so we will be offering a £100 cash prize for each category plus an assortment of other goodies including an awards trophy.
We believe this is the first freelance journalism awards of its kind in the UK and we hope it will be a wonderful celebration of all the hard work you do. Awards can be a great way to network, raise your profile and have a good nosy at what your peers are getting up to.
We can’t wait to open for entries, so watch this space!
In the meantime we love to hear your feedback on everything we do, so feel free to drop us an email anytime at freelancingforjournalists@gmail.com
Bye for now!
