DEADLINE: Waldo Proffitt Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism in Florida

The Zimmerman School of Advertising & Mass Communications at the University of South Florida invites entries for the 2020 Waldo Proffitt Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism in Florida.

The award recognizes distinguished examples of daily and weekly newspaper reporting and commentary about environmental issues in Florida. The Waldo Proffitt Award was established in 1998 by the friends of Waldo Proffitt, a former editor of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, to honor his legacy. The award is made possible by the Waldo Proffitt Scholarship Fund of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, Inc.

The $1,000 award will be given for outstanding achievement in a published story or series of stories, commentary or editorials published in a Florida daily or weekly newspaper during 2019.
The winner will receive the award at the annual summer meeting of the Florida Press Association and Florida Society of News Editors.

The rules:
1.    Work must have been published in a Florida daily or weekly newspaper or a digital news site. Entries by an individual or team may include distinguished local reporting of breaking news, distinguished investigative reporting presented as a single article or series, distinguished explanatory reporting that illuminates a significant and complex subject presented as a single article or series, distinguished commentary or editorial writing, or a combination of these forms.
2.    Journalists employed by daily and weekly newspapers, and digital news organizations are eligible for the award, as are their news organizations.
3.    Only one entry per news organization may be submitted each year, but the entry may have as many as 10 items.
4.    Entries may be PDFs, tearsheets or photocopies of tearsheets. An explanatory letter not to exceed one page may accompany the entry. To facilitate judging, entrants must submit two copies of the entry. Each entry should have the entrant's name, address, phone number and the name of the newspaper that employed the entrant. Responsible challenges to the accuracy or fairness of the entry also should be included.

Entries cannot be returned and are judged by professionals from the fields of journalism, journalism education and environmental science. Submissions should be postmarked by April 6 and sent to:

Waldo Proffitt Award for Environmental Journalism
University of South Florida
Mass Communications
4202 E. Fowler Ave., CIS 1040
Tampa, FL 33620

The Waldo Proffitt Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism in Florida is administered by The Zimmerman School of Advertising & Mass Communications at the University of South Florida. Questions may be addressed to Wendy Whitt, The Zimmerman School of Advertising & Mass Communications, at wwhitt@usf.edu.