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08 Apr SPJ Gala Awards: Nominations Are Open

Do you know an outstanding local journalist? We hope you will nominate her/him for one of the four local awards we are doing this year (two of them are new gala awards!).

The 2013 SPJ Gala Awards are Journalist of the Year Award, New Journalist of the Year Award, June Anderson Almquist Lifetime Achievement Award and Susan Hutchison Bosch Award for perseverance and quiet courage. Journalists don’t always get the recognition they deserve, so please help us honor the best professionals in our industry. Deadline for nominations is Monday, April 29.

Criteria:

Journalist of the Year Award: This award will go to a local journalist who has made an impact both externally (with the public) and internally. Any journalist can win this award – from a copy editor or page designer to an editor or producer to a writer or photographer to a single-person running an online site. The nominator must demonstrate to us that this person has had a standout year. Please be as specific as possible.

New Journalist of the Year Award:  This award will go to an outstanding journalist who has only been full-time for three years or less. It’s not easy being the “newbie” and sometimes you don’t get the most glorious assignments. This award is to honor those new journalists who take on tasks, no matter what they are, with enthusiasm and determination.

June Anderson Almquist Lifetime Achievement Award: In the late 1960s, the SPJ Western Washington Chapter established the “Courage in Journalism” and “Service to Journalism” awards to honor organizations and individuals for special contributions toward the betterment of journalism within Washington state. They were later combined into one under the moniker of the “Distinguished Service to Journalism Award.” The board renamed the award the “June Anderson Almquist Award for Distinguished Service to Journalism,” following the trailblazing Seattle Times journalist’s death in 2000.

Susan Hutchison Bosch Award: Susan Hutchison Bosch, an environmental affairs reporter for the Seattle P-I, contracted lymphoma at the age of 18 while a student at the University of Washington and died of Hodgkin’s disease at the age of 25 in 1971. Bosch “personified intellectual honesty, deep understanding of people and their problems, abiding fairness, grace, perseverance and quiet courage,” according to the board that established this award in her honor. “Though afflicted with Hodgkin’s disease, she rejected despair and chose to live a fully committed life.” The award is presented only when the recipient is judged uniquely qualified and his or her work reflects the qualities Bosch defined in life.