IJEA Newspaper & Digital News Media Contest
Click Here to Access the 2025 Contest Platform
Deadline for 2025 IJEA Newspaper & Digital News Contest:
10:59 p.m. Saturday, March 15, 2025
ADVISERS, PLEASE NOTE OUR CHANGE IN FEES!
So that we may continue to use the Better BNC platform as a submission and organizational tool for our annual Newspaper & Digital News Media Contest, the IJEA board recently voted to approve a modified fee structure for participating schools.
Until now, schools entering our spring contest paid a modest entry fee in exchange for unlimited entries. The new structure will keep the price of the school entry fee the same but limit the number of entries included with it and will add a per-entry charge for all additional entries submitted by each school.
IJEA’s primary objective in making this change is to generate enough revenue from each year’s contest so that the contest entry platform pays for itself. This decision results from consecutive years of the Better BNC platform costing us considerably more than the contest brings in.
Beginning with our upcoming 2025 contest, the entry fees will be as follows:
• The school contest entry fee will stay at $20.
• The entry fee includes five entries in any category.
• For additional entries beyond the first five, the fee will be $5 per entry.
With these changes, a school would pay — at minimum — $20 for five entries, or at the most, $290 to enter every available per-school contest slot.
The IJEA board understands that the fee increase is not an insignificant one for many Illinois high school journalism programs but also believes that these new fees are reasonable when compared to similar news contests in other states and at the national level.
We thank you for understanding our efforts to be good stewards of our resources as we attempt to minimize the financial burden that running this contest has placed on our organization each year. We look forward to continuing to recognize your dedicated and driven student journalists for the outstanding work they’ve been producing.
If you have any questions, please reach out to a board member. If you work for a school that is financially unable to continue to participate in the contest because of these changes, we want to hear from you as well, so that we can better gauge the impact of these changes.
Thank you! The March 15 entry deadline will be here before you know it, so start pulling together your publication’s best work. We’re looking forward to seeing it!
How to Enter the 2025 Contest
STEP 1: Fill Out and Submit the Adviser Information Form
This is the same form we’ve used for the last several years.
STEP 2: Use Our Contest Platform to Submit Your Entries
Please consult this page for instructions and screenshots on how to use the platform. The same instructions (minus screenshots) can be found in the “SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS” section when you arrive at the platform homepage. The instruction section is located in the lower left corner of the contest platform homepage.
IMPORTANT: If the contest platform does not currently list your school as one of the contestants, please contact Dave Porreca at [email protected], and he will add your school right away.
How to Use the Contest Platform
Instructions and screenshots explaining how to use the contest platform are available here. PLEASE CONSULT THIS PAGE if you are unfamiliar with the BNC platform. The instructions and screenshots will answer almost any question you might have about using the platform.
Once you arrive at the contest platform, the same instructions (minus screenshots) are contained in a section titled “SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS,” located in the lower left corner of the contest platform homepage.
Contest Categories
Our 30 categories are organized into three main types: Core (open to all publications), Digital (open to digital-only publications or digital versions of hybrid publications) and Print (open to print-only publications or print versions of hybrid publications).
Descriptions of the contest categories are available at these links:
• Core Categores (20)
• Digital Categories (5)
• Print Categories (5)
If your publication was designed as a print publication but was not actually printed and was instead distributed as a PDF only, please consider yourself a print publication for this contest.
Number of Entries Per Category
Each school may submit a maximum of two entries per category except for Best Website, which is limited to one entry. Our contest consists of 30 categories, resulting in a maximum of 59 possible entries per school.
Deadline for Entries | March 15, 2025
The deadline for this year’s contest submissions will be 10:59 p.m. Central Time on Saturday, March 15, 2025. With respect to that deadline, the new platform will automatically cease accepting entries at that time, so deadline extensions will no longer be possible as they were in previous years.
Eligibility Window | March 16, 2024, to March 15, 2025
To be eligible for the 2025 contest, your students’ work must have been published between March 16, 2024, and March 15, 2025. The 2025 eligibility window includes work published on March 16, 2024, and on March 15, 2025.
Contest Entry Fee & Per-Entry Fees
We charge a one-time contest entry fee of $20 for all participating schools. As mentioned above in the section describing our pricing changes, this $20 fee entitles each school to five entries without additional charge. After your first five entries, each additional entry will cost $5 each.
IJEA Membership Requirement
Advisers, please note: In order to enter your students’ work in the 2025 contest, you must be a 2024-25 member of IJEA. Membership dues are $25 per year or a one-time fee of $250 for a lifetime membership.
To join IJEA, please complete and submit our online membership form OR our fillable PDF form. In either case, mail your yearly or lifetime membership fee to:
Susan Bookless, IJEA Treasurer
11420 West Chetlain Lane
Galena, IL 61036
All necessary payment instructions are included in both the online and PDF membership forms. For more information about IJEA membership, click here.
Maximum Possible Cost for a School
As mentioned above, each school may submit a maximum of two entries per category except for Best Website, which is limited to one entry. With 30 categories in our contest, this means a school may submit a maximum of 59 possible entries.
So the maximum possible cost for a school entering all 30 categories would be $290 ($20 contest fee + $0 for first five entries + $270 for remaining 54 entries) if the adviser is ALREADY a 2024-25 IJEA member, or $315 if the adviser is NOT YET a member ($290 + $25 membership fee).
Awards
Each enrollment division offers all 30 categories, with first-, second- and third-place division winners chosen in each category. Honorable mention awards are given at the judges’ discretion. All award winners will receive digital certificates.
Points
For purposes of determining the top publications in each division, a first-place entry in any category will count as five points, a second-place entry as four points, a third-place entry as three points and an honorable mention entry as one point.
Best Overall Publication Honors
The top three point-scoring publications in each enrollment division will receive certificates indicating first, second or third place for Best Overall Publication within their respective divisions.
Best Print, Digital & Hybrid Publication Honors
In addition, certificates will be awarded to each division’s top three print-only publications (Best Print Publication), top three digital-only publications (Best Digital Publication) and top three hybrids (Best Hybrid Publication).
Contest Winners Since 2010
Congratulations to all of our winning publication staffs and advisers over the years! Our contest is dedicated to recognizing the hard work and dedication you put into telling the stories of your schools. Prior to 2011 this contest was known as the Eastern Illinois High School Press Association Newspaper Contest.
• 2024 Newspaper & Digital News Media Contest (work published from March 2023 to March 2024)
— Division 1 Best Publication & Individual Winners
— Division 2 Best Publication & Individual Winners
— Division 3 Best Publication & Individual Winners
— Division 4 Best Publication & Individual Winners
— Division 5 Best Publication & Individual Winners
• 2023 Newspaper & Digital News Media Contest (work published from March 2022 to March 2023)
— Division 1 Individual Winners
— Division 1 Best Publication Winners
— Division 2 Individual Winners
— Division 2 Best Publication Winners
— Division 3 Individual Winners
— Division 3 Best Publication Winners
— Division 4 Individual Winners
— Division 4 Best Publication Winners
— Division 5 Individual Winners
— Division 5 Best Publication Winners
• 2022 Newspaper & Digital News Media Contest (work published from March 2021 to March 2022)
— Division 1 Individual Winners
— Division 1 Best Publication Winners
— Division 2 Individual Winners
— Division 2 Best Publication Winners
— Division 3 Individual Winners
— Division 3 Best Publication Winners
— Division 4 Individual Winners
— Division 4 Best Publication Winners
— Division 5 Individual Winners
— Division 5 Best Publication Winners
• 2021 Newspaper & Digital News Media Contest (work published from March 2020 to March 2021)
— Division 1 Winners (with links to winning entries)
— Division 2 Winners (with links to winning entries)
— Division 3 Winners (with links to winning entries)
— Division 4 Winners (with links to winning entries)
— Division 5 Winners (with links to winning entries)
• 2020 Newspaper & Digital News Media Contest (work published from March 2019 to March 2020)
— Division 1 Winners (with links to winning entries)
— Division 2 Winners (with links to winning entries)
— Division 3 Winners (with links to winning entries)
— Division 4 Winners (with links to winning entries)
— Division 5 Winners (with links to winning entries)
• 2019 Newspaper & Digital News Media Contest (work published from March 2018 to March 2019)
• 2018 Newspaper & Digital News Media Contest (work published from March 2017 to March 2018)
• 2017 Newspaper & Digital News Media Contest (work published from March 2016 to March 2017)
• 2016 Newspaper & Digital News Media Contest (work published from March 2015 to March 2016)
• 2015 Newspaper Contest (work published from March 2014 to March 2015)
• 2014 Newspaper Contest (work published from March 2013 to March 2014)
• 2013 Newspaper Contest (work published from March 2012 to March 2013)
• 2012 Newspaper Contest (work published from March 2011 to March 2012)
• 2011 Newspaper Contest (work published from March 2010 to March 2011)
• 2010 Newspaper Contest (work published from March 2009 to March 2010)