The Chicago Headline Club is excited to announce that nominations are now open for the Chicago Headline Club’s 2025 journalism awards — including a new way to honor Chicago editors. While planning your entries, be sure to note the varying nomination deadlines for each award type.
The Club is thrilled to share the evolution of the A-Mark Prize, which will now honor investigative editors. Colleagues and reporters can nominate editors for the award, which includes a cash prize for first, second and third place. The Watchdog Award also includes a cash prize.
2025 Chicago Journalism Awards + Deadlines
- A-Mark Prize for Investigative Reporting and Editing — due Friday, January 16 at 11:59 p.m. CT
- Watchdog Award for Public Interest Journalism — due Friday, January 16 at 11:59 p.m. CT
- Anne Keegan Award — due Monday, February 2 at 11:59 p.m. CT
- Lifetime Achievement Award — due Monday, February 2 at 11:59 p.m. CT
- Peter Lisagor Awards — due Monday, February 2 at 11:59 p.m. CT
About The Awards
A-Mark Prize for Investigative Reporting and Editing
The A-Mark Prize for Investigative Reporting and Editing honor one or more reporters and their editors who worked on stories that overcame significant challenges in order to reach publication, such as FOIA legal battles, reticent public officials or other institutional barriers. It is sponsored by the A-Mark Foundation. The inaugural award was given in 2025 — initially as the A-Mark Prize for Dogged Reporting. In 2026, the Headline Club changed the award to honor investigative editors.
Sponsored by the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the CHC each year awards a cash prize for enterprising journalism that defends and protects everyday folks.
The Anne Keegan Award for distinguished journalism reflecting the dignity and spirit of the common man will be presented to writers whose work appears in print, or on established journalism websites, who tell stories of ordinary people in extraordinarily well-reported and well-written prose.
The Chicago Headline Club Lifetime Achievement Award is an annual award recognizing journalists for their extraordinary contribution to the community and/or the profession. The Lifetime Achievement Award honors those journalists who tirelessly work to cover, report, edit and tape the news day in and day out.
The Chicago Headline Club’s Peter Lisagor Awards are an annual celebration of the best journalism produced throughout the region, spanning all mediums including print, radio, television and digital. Price increases on December 31 and January 13. Entry deadline: Monday, February 2 at 11:59 p.m.
Contest Rules
All must have aired or been published in the 2025 calendar year and be the original work of journalists in Illinois or northwest Indiana.
All nominations must meet standards set forth in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics. Entities that are principally advocacy organizations are not eligible. Entries should include all related corrections, clarifications or retractions