Submission period for awards ends on August 31, 2022

New Jersey, August 23, 2022 – On October 6, 2022*, the Corporation for New Jersey Local Media (CNJLM) will host the second annual Byrne Kean Dinner, a gala that honors the best of local and statewide journalism. The organization’s mission is to build strong communities through local journalism and civic engagement. For the second year, CNJLM intends to honor three journalists or teams of journalists with the CNJLM Impact Awards.
Stories eligible for nomination must have been published or broadcast between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022 by a New Jersey-based news organization. Nominations are open to all different kinds of media, including print, digital, broadcast, and more. To be eligible for the Lifetime Impact Award, the individual must have dedicated a significant portion of their career to journalism in New Jersey.
These awards will honor New Jersey journalists who have significantly impacted civic engagement in the state, either by educating the public about political or social issues or by investigating issues for the general public that they would not have otherwise known about.
Three awards will be given out:
• Lifetime Achievement in Journalism — this takes into consideration an individual’s entire body of work over the course of their career.
• Statewide Impact in Journalism — this award is for work that had an impact across many communities across the entire state of New Jersey.
• Local Impact in Journalism — this award is for work that had an impact in a specific community.
Nominations will be accepted until next Wednesday, August 31, after which CNJLM’s awards committee will choose the honorees. The awards committee will be composed of three external judges who are not employed by CNJLM.
These awards are unique in that they are the only ones in the state that take into consideration a wide range of an individual journalist’s work. Additionally, the Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Impact Award is the only New Jersey-focused lifetime achievement award for journalism in the state.
Last year, the inaugural New Jersey Journalism Impact Awards were presented to nine journalists who made a significant impact on local and regional reporting:
• Michael Aron, chief political correspondent for New Jersey Network and NJTV in a career that spanned eight governors, received the Lifetime Achievement in Journalism award.
• Joe Albright, the nation’s longest-serving Statehouse correspondent who still writes a weekly column for the Jersey Journal, was also honored with a Lifetime Achievement in Journalism award.
• Sue Livio and Ted Sherman of the Star-Ledger and NJ.com received Statewide Impact in Journalism awards for their investigative reporting and analysis of the reasons for the devastating spread of Covid-19 through New Jersey nursing homes, killing more than 8,600 residents and staffers.
• Blake Nelson and Joseph Atmonavage of the Star-Ledger and NJ.com received Statewide Impact in Journalism awards for their series of articles that uncovered the brutal middle-of-the-night assaults by corrections officers on female inmates at the Edna Mahan Correctional Institute for Women in Hunterdon County.
• Scott Fallon and Lindy Washburn of The Record of Hackensack and NorthJersey.com received Local Impact in Journalism awards for their investigative reporting on the deadly coronavirus outbreak at the state-run Paramus Veterans Home, which had the highest death rate of any veterans facility in the nation.
• Jennifer Jean Miller received a Local Impact in Journalism award for her reporting for the New Jersey Herald on the discovery of 18 bodies stacked in a makeshift morgue at the Andover Subacute nursing facility, which alerted the state and the nation to the extent of the Covid-19 crisis sweeping through nursing homes, and for her subsequent interviews with families and staff on how the outbreak was kept hidden.
Click here to read about last year’s New Jersey Journalism Impact Award winners.

• Details:
o Nominations of journalists of color or those who identify as part of a marginalized community will be prioritized.
o Multiple nominations from a single publication are eligible in each category.
o Teams of reporters are encouraged to apply; if awarded, each journalist named in the nomination will be honored.
o Only one award will be presented per category.
o Awards will be presented at the Byrne Kean gala, and winners will be invited to attend with a guest.

Click here to submit nomination(s).

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Corporation for New Jersey Local Media builds strong communities through journalism and civic engagement. The organization seeks to enhance civic engagement by promoting professional community journalism, fostering public discussion of critical issues, and expanding access to educational programs. Learn more at www.newsweneed.org.