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THE WALDO PROFFITT AWARD

For Excellence in Environmental Journalism in Florida

The School of Mass Communications at the University of South Florida invites entries for the 2009 Waldo Proffitt Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism in Florida.

The award recognizes distinguished examples of daily and weekly newspaper reporting and commentary about environmental issues in Florida. The Waldo Proffitt Award was established in 1998 by the friends of Waldo Proffitt, former editor of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, to honor his legacy.

The award is made possible by the Waldo Proffitt Scholarship Fund of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, Inc.

The $1,000 award will be given for outstanding achievement in a published story or series of stories, commentary or editorials published in a Florida daily or weekly newspaper during 2008. The winner will receive the award at the annual summer convention of the Florida Press Association and Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. The rules follow:

• Work must have been published in a Florida daily or weekly newspaper during 2008. Entries by an individual or team may include distinguished local reporting of breaking news, distinguished investigative reporting presented as a single article or series, distinguished explanatory reporting that illuminates a significant and complex subject presented as a single article or series, distinguished commentary or editorial writing, or a combination of these forms.
  
  
• Journalists employed by daily and weekly newspapers are eligible for the award, as are their news organizations.
  
  
• Only one entry per newspaper organization may be submitted each year, but the entry may have as many as 10 items.
  
  
• Entries should be tearsheets or photocopies of the tearsheets. An explanatory letter not to exceed one page may accompany the entry. To facilitate judging, entrants must submit four copies of the entry. Each entry should have the entrant's name, address, phone number and the name of the newspaper that employed the entrant. Responsible challenges to the accuracy or fairness of the entry also should be included.
  
  
• Deadline for receipt of entries for this year's award is March 30, 2009.
  
  

For a list of previous winners, click here.

Entries cannot be returned and are judged by professionals from the fields of journalism, journalism education and environmental science. Submissions should be sent to:

Waldo Proffitt Award for Environmental Journalism
School of Mass Communications
University of South Florida
4202 E. Fowler Ave., CIS 1040
Tampa, FL. 33620

The Waldo Proffitt Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism in Florida is administered by the School of Mass Communications at the University of South Florida. Questions may be addressed to Edward Jay Friedlander, Director, USF School of Mass Communications, by electronic mail address at efriedla@shell.cas.usf.edu or by telephone at 813-974-6461.