Fourth Estate Award Gala honoring Axios’ Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen and Press Freedom Awardees is Thursday
UPDATE at 12:45 p.m. on Nov. 21: There will be a livestream of the event. Find it here.
Ticket sales have ended for this event, but you may contact the National Press Club Journalism Institute's Beth Francesco with questions about it at [email protected].
Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, co-founders of two digital news outlets that have revolutionized how audiences consume their news, will receive the National Press Club’s Fourth Estate Award during a gala in their honor on Thursday, Nov. 21. The award recognizes journalists who have made significant contributions to the field and is the Club’s most esteemed prize.
Allen and VandeHei co-founded Axios, which they launched with co-founder Roy Schwartz in 2017. Axios is among the most celebrated digital media success stories of the past decade and was acquired by Cox Enterprises in 2022. They launched Axios Local in 2021 to provide original reporting, scoops, and local coverage worthy of readers’ time. Axios Local is now in 30 markets around the country and has nearly two million subscribers. Learn more about the honorees.
The black-tie celebration will be held in the historic ballroom of the National Press Club, beginning with a reception at 6 p.m. followed by dinner and the awards program starting at 7 p.m.
The evening also will honor the winners of the John Aubuchon Press Freedom Awards:
Mississippi Today, a nonprofit, non-partisan newsroom that is currently involved in a legal case to protect privileged documents used in producing a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation and named in an ensuing defamation case brought by the state’s former governor.
Yvette Cabrera, senior reporter at the Center for Public Integrity and a dedicated environmental justice journalist, will receive the 2024 Neil and Susan Sheehan Award for Investigative Journalism.
Wael Al-Dahdouh, Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, who experienced unspeakable personal tragedies while reporting in Gaza, including the loss of his entire family and sustaining extensive nerve damage as the result of a drone strike.
The gala is a fundraiser for the Club’s nonprofit affiliate, the National Press Club Journalism Institute. The Institute provides training that equips journalists with skills and standards to inform the public, provides career support for journalists, and provides scholarships to aspiring journalists.