Call for Toner Prize Entries

from the inbox:

Entries for the $5,000 Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting are now being accepted by the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Entries can be submitted online at http://tonerprogram.syr.edu. Deadline is January 20, 2013.

 

The Toner Prize recognizes outstanding political reporting in a tribute to the late Robin Toner ’76, who was the first woman to serve as national political correspondent for The New York Times. Toner was a summa cum laude graduate of SU with a dual degree in journalism and political science.

 

“The 2012 coverage of elections gives a special significance for the Toner Prize this year,” says Charlotte Grimes, Newhouse’s Knight Chair in Political Reporting and administrator of the Robin Toner Program in Political Reporting. “Giving voters solid, insightful and factual information to make informed decisions is the core mission of political reporting—and a hallmark of the work of Robin Toner.” 

 

The Toner Prize will go to the best national or local political reporting on any platform—print, broadcast or online. Entries must be fact-based reporting, not commentary. Single articles, series or a body of work are eligible. The work must have been published, posted or broadcast between January 1 and December 31, 2012.

 

Entries will be judged on how well they reflect the high standards and depth of reporting that marked Toner’s work. In particular, the judges will look for how well the entries:  

• Illuminate the electoral process or
• Reveal the politics of policy and
• Engage the public in democracy.

 

“We strongly encourage entries of election coverage – presidential, congressional or local elections,” says Grimes.

 

This is the third year of the Toner Prize. The first prize, in 2010, went to Craig Harris of The Arizona Republic for an eight-part series on Arizona’s broken and expensive public pension plan. The 2011 Toner Prize was awarded to Jane Mayer of The New Yorker for her in-depth look at a prominent political donor’s influence on North Carolina politics.  

 

The Toner Prize is part of the Robin Toner Program in Political Reporting created by the Newhouse School and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Toner’s family, friends and classmates are raising $1 million for the Robin Toner Endowment to support the program.

 

In her journalism career, Toner spent nearly 25 years with The New York Times, covering five presidential campaigns, scores of congressional and gubernatorial races and many of the country’s major political and policy issues. She died in December 2008.