The Deadline Club Awards

The Deadline Club Awards Contest opens for entries on Monday, January 4, 2021.

The Deadline Club’s journalism competition, one of the most prestigious in New York, stretches back to 1957, when the club introduced the James Wright Brown Award honoring outstanding journalistic achievement in the metropolitan area. That first prize was presented to The New York Journal-American for the paper’s role in the capture of George Metesky, the “Mad Bomber.” In 1968, legendary cartoonist Rube Goldberg sculpted his “dead line” for the annual competition that today recognizes the best in journalism across 36 categories.

The 2021 contest covers work that was published or broadcast in 2020 by news organizations in the New York metropolitan area. Entrants must be employees of or freelance journalists for news organizations with an office within a 50-mile radius of Columbus Circle in New York City. Read complete rules and eligibility requirements below.

CLICK HERE FOR CATEGORY DESCRIPTIONS

There are two contest deadlines. The first deadline is Tuesday, February 9, at 11:59 p.m. ET and the fee is $75 per entry. After February 9, the fee is $100 per entry and the final deadline is Tuesday, February 16, at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Our contest is managed by BetterBNC, and requires contestants to create an Open Call Contestant account before they are able to enter. More information on how to enter this year’s contest is available via this link:

CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE DEADLINE CLUB AWARDS CONTEST

Complete rules and eligibility requirements are listed below:

Deadline: The first entry deadline is 11:59 p.m. ET Tuesday, February 9. Entries submitted after Tuesday, February 9, will be $100 per entry. The final deadline to submit entries is Tuesday, February 16 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Payment: The cost is $75 per entry before 11:59 p.m. February 9, and $100 per entry for any entry submitted between 11:59 p.m. ET February 9 and 11:59 p.m. ET February 16. An entry will not be judged unless the fee has been paid in full by the entry deadline. The fee may be paid using a credit card after completing the entry process on this website. If paying by check, it must be payable to The Deadline Club and the envelope must be postmarked by the entry deadline, and mailed to: The Deadline Club, c/o Salmagundi Club, 47 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10003. When mailing a check, please include the entry fees page showing how many entries were made for your organization on the contest entry system.

A work may be submitted to more than one category, but a separate entry fee must be paid for each category entered.

Provide full contact information for the primary contact, whether that is a contest coordinator or the entrant. This should include the individual’s name, organization, e-mail address, snail mail address and phone number. If possible, please provide a backup contact, and indicate if another contact should be notified about making plans to attend the awards dinner, where the winners will be announced.

Entrants must be employees of or freelancers for news organizations with an office within a 50-mile radius of Columbus Circle in New York City.

Entries must have been published or aired in 2020.

Content of entries may not be altered from original publication or broadcast, except for shortening as specified in the radio and television categories.

Entries originally published or aired in a language other than English may be submitted if the original and an exact translation into English are supplied.

Any corrections, clarifications or retractions made after initial publishing or broadcast must be submitted as part of the entry. Also, copies of any written challenges to the report’s accuracy sent to the entrant or the news organization by or on behalf of those mentioned – including but not limited to letters, emails or legal papers – must be included with the entry. Any responses by the news organization should also be included.

If you choose to include a cover letter, let it speak for you. Explain why you believe your entry is the finest example of journalism in its category.

Entries will be judged on fairness, balance and accuracy; thoroughness, timeliness and clarity; news language and technical skills exhibited; enterprise, resourcefulness and obstacles overcome; effort involved in preparation; and the story’s interest and importance to the public. Entries will be judged by experienced journalists.

In some cases, they may decide that a category merits no winners.

Judges reserve the right to move an entry to another category.

Category Rules

The newspaper and digital categories, including the Daniel Pearl Award for Investigative Reporting, are open to all newspapers, wire services and digital media outlets. These categories are not open to articles originally created for print magazines, which may be submitted to the magazine categories, or to audiovisual programs, which may be submitted to the audio and video categories.

The magazine categories are open to magazines with general circulations, magazine sections of newspapers, Sunday supplements and any digital media affiliated with these publications.

The radio and audio reporting category is open to radio and satellite networks, local radio stations and digital media. Original programs may include podcasts, and may be edited to the required length.

The digital video reporting category is open to all audiovisual media produced originally for digital distribution.

The television categories are open to broadcast and cable television networks and local stations. Original programs may be edited to the required length.

The categories open to all media include written, audio or video entries distributed through print, broadcast or digital media outlets.

Technical Requirements

Allowable files types are pdf, txt, doc, jpg, gif, png, docx.

Video and audio entries must be submitted in the form of URLs – they cannot be uploaded to the contest site. If the entries are not already available online, they can be uploaded to a hosting site such as YouTube, Vimeo or Kiwi 6 (audio only).

*Those who wish to submit an entry via a URL link have the following options:
1. Print out article(s) to PDF format and submit article(s) so it can easily be accessed from our servers for offline review. (preferred)
2. Copy and paste article(s) in a word document and submit.
3. Place URL link(s) inside a word document.