2021 LION Local Journalism Awards

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Unless otherwise noted, the winners for each award was selected by an independent team of expert judges, and this year we added six new or revamped categories. See below for all the 2021 LION Award categories as well as the rules for entry:

  • Best Coverage of Protest and Movements for publications that effectively covered protests and activism in their community.
  • Best (Local) Election/Voting Coverage for publications that have served their communities with excellent election coverage.
  • Best Coronavirus Coverage for journalism about the COVID-19 pandemic, including coverage of coronavirus vaccines, that demonstrates meeting a community’s need; creative reader engagement; and journalistic impact.
  • General Excellence: Operational Resilience will be awarded to a LION member that has taken steps to implement the internal structures, workflows, and policies that enable a news business to run efficiently, inclusively, and sustainably. This could include founder/staff burnout, ability to attract and retain diverse and talented staff, having a plan and process to grow a team over time, and founder succession. We will accept nominations, including self-nominations, and the winner will be selected by a special panel of LION judges. Need more inspiration for your nomination? Read our section on operational resilience in our GNI Startups Playbook. This awards comes with a cash prize.
  • General Excellence: Revenue Growth (previously known as the Business Idea of the Year) will be awarded to a LION member that has successfully implemented revenue generating strategies. We will accept nominations, including self-nominations, and the winner will be selected by a special panel of LION judges. Need more inspiration for your nomination? Past year’s finalists included Detour Detroit for its Keep Detroit Local Initiative, Richland Source for its Source Brand Solutions digital marketing agency, VT Digger for its press release portal, and Taproot Edmonton for its curated newsletter for business. This awards comes with a cash prize.
  • Community Engagement and Service Award for projects that demonstrate sustained engagement with a publication’s audience or community.  

Returning categories include:

  • Best Solutions Project of the Year for projects that excel in solutions, evidence-based journalism.
  • Publisher of the Year (Solo, Small, Medium/Large) for publishers who provide excellent coverage of their community over a prolonged period of time. These awards come with a cash prize.
  • Investigative Report of the Year (Solo, Small, Medium/Large) for investigative stories or series that result in increased awareness and community impact.
  • Breaking News (Solo, Small, Medium/Large) for coverage of unplanned breaking or developing news events, weighing quality of writing and creative use of social platforms under deadline. 
  • Visual Journalism Project for compelling storytelling through photography, videography or infographics/data visualization.
  • Collaboration of the Year for creative collaborations between publications or community partners.
  • Public Service Award for a publication that has served its community with high-impact journalistic work.
  • New Publisher of the Year for an outstanding entrepreneur who launched their publication after July 20, 2020. This award comes with a cash prize and a complimentary LION membership for 2022.
  • Member of the Year: Based on nominations, the LION staff will award a member who has gone above and beyond in supporting their fellow LION members and community.

The fine print: The LION Awards are open to LION Publishers members, including employees or freelancers who work for publications run by LION Publishers members. 

Categories: To ensure we’re comparing LION member publications of roughly the same size and capacity, we’ll ask that you provide your full-time equivalent staff (FTE) as of July 20, 2020, with each awards entry:

Solopreneur: 0-1 full time employees 

Small publication: two to 5 full time employees 

Medium - Large publication: 6 or more full time employees

Thank you to the 2021 LION Awards sponsors!

Our presenting sponsor:

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