Toner Prizes for Excellence in Political Reporting 2025 (up to $5,000)

Applications for the Toner Prizes for Excellence in Political Reporting 2025 are now open. Click here to learn more about this opportunity and apply for it.

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About Toner Prizes for Excellence in Political Reporting

Opportunity Details

The Toner Prizes for Excellence in Political Reporting recognize the best U.S. national or local political reporting in any medium or on any platform-print, broadcast or online. They are named for late alumna Robin Toner '76, the first woman to serve as national political correspondent for The New York Times.

Two prizes-the Toner Prize for Excellence in National Political Reporting and the Toner Prize for Excellence in Local Political Reporting -are awarded annually by the Newhouse School.

Benefits of Toner Prizes for Excellence in Political Reporting

  • Two prizes—the Toner Prize for Excellence in National Political Reporting and the Toner Prize for Excellence in Local Political Reporting—are awarded annually by the Newhouse School. Each includes a $5,000 honorarium.

Toner Prizes for Excellence in Political Reporting Requirements

  • Open to U.S.-based journalists.
  • Entries must be fact-based reporting, not commentary. Single articles or a body of work are eligible. Each entry is limited to four stories. A news organization may enter more than one reporter or team, but the same reporter or team can be entered only once. Reporters may enter their own work, but can enter only once.
  • The work must have been reported, published, posted or broadcast between January 1 and December 31, 2024. Books are ineligible.

Judging Criteria 

Entries are judged on how well they reflect the high standards and depth of reporting that marked Robin Toner’s work. Judges look for how well the entries:

  • illuminate the electoral process, with a special focus on coverage of candidates, campaigns or elections, or
  • reveal the politics of policy and
  • engage the public in democracy.

Application Date and Process

  • Click on the link to the application website to apply.

Application Deadline

20 January, 2025

Scholarship Application Portal

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