NPC's Friedenberg Award recognizes top efforts in online journalism

The National Press Club is honoring cutting-edge work in online work by those in the news business with one of its newest awards, the Joan M. Friedenberg Online Journalism Award.

The award is among those in the Club's Journalism Contest. Deadline for entering the contest is April 1, so pick your entries and mail them soon! For information about the contest, click here. The prize for the winner is $750.

The online award is named in memory of Joan M. Friedenberg, founding editor of the Online Newshour and wife of former Club President Jonathan D. Salant. It is partially funded by donations from Joan's friends and family.

The winner will have done original reporting and have taken advantage of online technology in order to provide a thorough report with attractive graphics. Judges will be especially interested in the use of multimedia. Both online-only reports and sites that accompany print or broadcast stories are eligible; in the latter case, entrants must show how they used online content to enhance the print and broadcast reports.

Recent winners include msnbc.com, for its story on Haiti’s amputees and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, for its project creating a partnership with YouTube to produce a yearlong series of compelling multimedia projects.

The NPC Journalism Contest also includes awards for breaking news, political reporting, regional reporting on Washington, international coverage, consumer reporting and newsletter journalism. It also includes a group of awards for areas as diverse as the news industry, aerospace and the airline industry, problems facing the elderly and humor writing.