Hearst Multimedia Digital News/Enterprise Competition Winners Announced
San Francisco – Winners have been announced in the Digital News or Enterprise Story Multimedia Competition of the 2024-2025 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. The winners were selected from 73 entries from 42 schools submitted in the third multimedia competition of the year.
First Place has been awarded to Eden McCall, a spring graduate from University of Oregon. Eden wins a $3,000 scholarship for the piece titled “Nature Next Door: A tiny pond surrounded by Bend Oregon’s urban
landscape entices a vanishing frog, and the people seeking to save it.”
Since Eden is a spring 2024 graduate, per our guidelines, she is not eligible for the Championship.
The second-place winner, Madeline Powell, a senior from Western Kentucky University, wins $2,000 and qualifies for the National Multimedia Championship in June 2025.
Third Place, $2,000 award, Quincy Marks, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Fourth Place, $1,000 award, Hannah Zinn, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Fifth Place, $1,000 award, Cara Penquite, University of Missouri
The top five winning schools will receive matching grants.
Sixth-through-tenth place finalists:
Sixth Place, certificate, Lauren Howe, Western Kentucky University
Seventh Place, certificate, Courtney Benedetto, Pennsylvania State University
Eighth Place, certificate, Bailey Korinek, University of Florida
Ninth Place, certificate, Fitz Cain, University of Southern California
Tenth Place, certificate, Nicole Borman, University Florida
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is in first place in the Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition with the highest accumulated student points in the first three multimedia competitions held thus far.
They are followed by:
Western Kentucky University
University of Southern California
University of Florida
University of Missouri
Michigan State University (tie)
University of Oregon (tie)
Syracuse University
University of Nevada, Reno
Arizona State University
The top three intercollegiate winners earn $10,000, $5,000 and $2,500 respectively. The
final intercollegiate winners will be announced after the completion of the fourth multimedia competition and presented during the National Championships in San Francisco this June.
The multimedia judges are: Robert Scheer, Deputy Managing Editor for Visuals, Post & Courier; Lauren Frohne, Lead Video Journalist, The Seattle Times; Jim Seida, Producer, NBC News.
The 65th annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program includes four writing, two photo, one audio, two television, one podcast and four multimedia competitions offering up to $700,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends. Currently, there are 105 universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs are eligible to participate in the Hearst competitions.
