Rules & Eligibility

The rules and eligibility requirements for the 2011 Online Journalism Awards are listed below.

Eligibility

General Eligibility

The Online Journalism Awards are open to websites, areas of websites and all digital platforms, including smart phones, e-readers and tablets, where journalists have originated the content or selected and amplified it. Search services, portal sites and wire services may submit content they created that fits the eligibility requirements. Individuals and organizations may enter the contest. Self-nominations are welcome. Online retailers and advertising sites are not eligible.

Publication date

The 2011 Online Journalism Awards are open to work published between July 1, 2010, and June 15, 2011. Entries must be available online for one year from date of submission.

Deadline

The deadline for entry has been extended to June 30, 11:59 p.m. ET.

Technical Innovation Award eligibility

For the Technical Innovation award, any company, journalistic in focus or not, may enter a digital tool it created which, in the company’s estimation, significantly enhances the practice of online journalism. The publication date restrictions do not apply to entrants for this award; instead, judges will weigh the breadth and recency of an entrant’s impact on the journalistic community.

Student eligibility

Students are welcome to submit work to any category. However, to be eligible for one of the three student categories (Multimedia Feature Presentation, Outstanding Use of Digital Technologies on the Web and Online Video), entrants must meet the following requirements:

Students can be full- or part-time but cannot have been paid for producing the work entered. Work produced for pay, either for a professional media organization or through a grant of other client, should be entered in the appropriate professional category. Entrants can be graduate, undergraduate or high school students. Entrants must check a box affirming the work was done by students and explain any professional or professorial involvement.
Entry

Submitting entries

Entries must be submitted through entry forms on journalists.org. To enter, fill out entry forms for all entries across all categories. Then pay for the total number of awards entries. Entry fees are listed below. More detailed payment instructions will follow after submitting entries.

Requirements

Review all entry requirements for each category before submitting an entry. Requirements vary depending on the category. Basic requirements include a URL where the entry is live and a username and password if the entry requires a subscription or registration. Requirements are posted on the entry page and on the entry forms for each category.

If an entry exists on a platform that is not available via a desktop computer, such as a smartphone or tablet application, entrants should provide a URL to a marketplace page where the application can be downloaded free of charge. If applicants are submitting entries that should be viewed through a smartphone browser, such as a mobile web page, please denote that in your entry title.

Metrics

Entrants will be required to select the proper sub-category based on the number of unique monthly visitors to the parent website where the entry appeared for the most recent month available. Unique monthly visitors can be measured according to your organization’s in-house metrics reporting tool.

If your entry was published only as non-commissioned user-submitted content to another website and that website did not make editorial changes or provide journalistic oversight, you should enter in the smallest available category.

If an entry is a non-desktop experience, such as an application for a smartphone or tablet, use the sub-category that represents the number of unique monthly visitors to the parent organization’s news website. If the parent does not maintain a news website, use the metrics available for your platform to enter under the appropriate sub-category. If metrics are not available, enter in the smallest available category.

Multiple entries

If submitting multiple entries (either in the same category or across multiple categories), fill out entry forms for each entry, then make one purchase for all of the entries you submitted.

Editing entries

Entries cannot be saved and edited at a later date, so be sure to have all information related to the entry before starting.

Entries cannot be edited after submission. If a correction must be made on your entry, email awards@journalists.org with the subject line “OJA 2011 Entry Correction” and include in the body the entry information and the correction. Emails received without the correct subject line may not be considered.

Payment

Entry fees

Entry fees are $175 per category for non-members or $100 per category for ONA members. Entry fees for students and sole practitioners are $125 per category for non-members or $50 per category for ONA members. If you’d like to become an ONA member, join here.

For consideration in multiple categories, or to enter multiple projects, you must pay for those additional entries.

Student and sole practitioner discounts

Student or sole practitioner entrants must use a discount code when making the entry purchase. The codes are OJAstudent for students and OJAsole for sole practitioners.

A sole practitioner is defined as a single journalist whose website does not employ any other individuals (unless on a freelance or contract basis) and whose digital work submitted for the OJAs was not done under the auspices of another journalistic organization.

Entries will be reviewed to ensure that the entrant qualifies for the discount. Other entrants making use of the discount codes will be disqualified.

How to pay

Payment must be received for all entries by July 6, 2011, 11:59 p.m. ET for entries to be eligible. Payment may be made online by credit card (preferred), or by check or money order. If paying by check, entrants must still complete the online payment form and receive an invoice for the entry to be considered.

Checks should be made payable to the Online News Association. Include the invoice number and mail the check to:

Online News Association
P.O. Box 65741
Washington, DC 20035
ATTN: Online Journalism Awards
Judging

Judges

Judges are a group of distinguished online journalists from around the world. Winners are determined by two rounds of judging. Judges assigned to each category will narrow down the entries to a group of finalists. These judges will then meet in person to select the winners.

Legal

Copyright and right of use

Entrants agree to the terms below upon submitting an entry to the Online Journalism Awards:

By submitting an entry in the Online Journalism Awards competition, you grant the Online News Association (and ONA’s co-sponsor(s) of the Online Journalism Awards, if any) the right to reproduce, distribute, perform, and display your entry and/or excerpts from your entry in any and all media: in connection with or to promote the Online Journalism Awards; in any archives composed in whole or in part of Online Journalism Awards entries, finalists, and/or winners; and/or in connection with educational projects for journalists, aspiring journalists, and/or the general public.

By submitting an entry, you represent and warrant that the entry is original work, that you have the right to submit the work as an entry in the Online Journalism Awards, and that you have the right to grant ONA (and ONA’s co-sponsor(s) of the Online Journalism Awards, if any) and the rights granted above.