One Week Left to Apply for the CJF Greg Clark Award

TORONTO, March 9, 2012 /CNW/ - With only a week left, early career journalists are encouraged to apply for the Canadian Journalism Foundation Greg Clark Award. The deadline for applications is March 16, 5:00 p.m. EST.

The Greg Clark Award is unique in Canadian journalism, designed to offer working journalists a chance to gain insight and meet key decision-makers on their beats. The successful applicant(s) will get an opportunity to spend up to a week observing the inner workings of an organization not usually accessible to the working journalist.

The award was created in memory of one of Canada's greatest journalists - a war correspondent, an avid outdoorsman, a humourist, but above all, a great reporter who excelled at storytelling.

Last year's winner Marion Warnica, who recently joined CBC Edmonton as a news reporter, wrapped up her Greg Clark Award experience last month at the Canadian Avalanche Centre in Revelstoke, British Columbia.

"For reporters in western Canada, stories of avalanche injuries and fatalities are fairly common, but rarely do we have the time or resources to do more than spot reporting," says Warnica. "The Greg Clark Award gave me the gifts of mobility and time to investigate an issue on the ground at the source - reporting tools that many cash-strapped newsrooms must now view as luxuries."

Read a report of Warnica's experience at http://cjf-fjc.ca/content/marion-warnica-2011-award-recipient.

Criteria

• Applicants will be welcomed from Canadian journalists who have been employed for one to five years and are employed by, under contract to, or freelancing on the news and editorial side of regularly published newspapers and periodicals, TV and radio news broadcasters, and online publications.
• Applications must agree that any information gathered is off-the-record unless the sponsoring organization agrees otherwise.
• Successful applicants will write a brief summary of their experience upon completion of their professional development opportunity.

How to Apply

• Submit a proposal of no more than two pages outlining how such a professional development opportunity would expand your knowledge of your beat and help you in your daily work.
• Provide two examples of your beat work. TV or radio clips should be no longer than 30 minutes and should be on disc (mail) or available online for download. DO NOT send audio or video files through e-mail. Original clippings should be accompanied by a printout of the text (mail).
• Include a resume and at least one letter of recommendation from a relevant employer.

The winner(s) will be honoured at the CJF Annual Award Gala, to be held this year at The Fairmont Royal York in Toronto on June 7.

If you know of early career journalists who deserve this opportunity, please encourage them to apply. For full details, visit http://cjf-fjc.ca/gregclark or download the English or French brochure.

The CJF would like to thank CTV News and the Toronto Star for their generous support of this award.

Wendy Kan
Canadian Journalism Foundation
59 Adelaide St. East, Suite 500
Toronto, ON M5C 1K6
[email protected]
416-955-0394 x502