WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Applications for the inaugural Pamela Tobey Award for Excellence in Visual Storytelling, celebrating the power of visual design to elevate journalism, inform communities, and deepen public understanding of complex issues, are now being accepted. Submit your best work by 11:59 p.m. ET Oct. 24.

The annual award recognizes work that pushes the boundaries of storytelling beyond text, rewarding creative uses of data visualization, interactivity, photography, videography, audio, illustration, and other emerging tools. The winning journalist will receive a $1,000 cash prize and will also contribute to the Institute's training programs by sharing insights with peers in the field.

Key Dates

• Applications Open: Sept. 23, 2025
• Deadline to Apply: 11:59 p.m. ET Oct. 24, 2025
• Winner Announced: Early November 2025

Who Should Submit an Entry

We welcome submissions from journalists, designers, newsrooms, and students whose work demonstrates how great design can amplify the truth. Entries may include individual or team projects. Entries may be submitted by either journalists or their employers. Employers are limited to three total individual entries. Click here to submit an entry.

What We're Looking For

Application requirements and eligibility:

• Applicants must tell a clear and compelling story through decisive design choices and display outstanding creativity and attention to designing to engage the viewer.
• Submissions will utilize at least three non-text storytelling elements or devices (for example: new media, data visualization, interactivity, photography, videography, audio/podcasts, illustrations, games, etc.)
• Include a working URL to the package under consideration. Please ensure the entry is not behind a paywall. If the entry is behind a paywall, please provide a method to access the entry.
• All entries must have appeared between January 1, 2025, and September 15, 2025.
• Non-traditional entrants are free to explain in supporting materials how they meet these journalistic criteria and should submit a statement explaining their editorial independence.
• Content produced for house organizations, pamphlets, theses, or reports will not be considered, nor will advocacy outlets of interest groups such as trade associations, consumer organizations or government agencies.
• Entrants agree to lead in a design-focused training for the National Press Club Journalism Institute audience within three months of receiving the award.

Prize

The winner will receive $1,000, recognition across the National Press Club Journalism Institute's platforms, and an opportunity to speak about their work during an Institute webinar.

How to Apply

Submit your application and project using this link by 11:59 p.m. ET Oct. 24, 2025. You'll need to include a brief description of the project, a link or upload of the work, along with some supporting materials.

Join us in recognizing the bold, beautiful work that shapes how we see and understand the world.

About the National Press Club Journalism Institute

The National Press Club Journalism Institute equips journalists with skills and knowledge, inspires civic engagement through compelling programming, and serves as a beacon for a free and independent press. As the nonprofit affiliate of the National Press Club, the Institute advances the work of journalism in service of democracy.

Press Contact: Beth Francesco, NPCJI executive director, bfrancesco@press.org

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SOURCE National Press Club Journalism Institute