The Scripps Howard Awards, formerly the National Journalism Awards, are $10,000 awards in American journalism given by the Scripps Howard Foundation. Awardees receive "cash prizes, citations and plaques."

As of 2023, the categories are:

Excellence in Audio Storytelling, honoring Jack R. Howard Excellence in Coverage of Breaking News Excellence in Business/Financial Reporting Excellence in Environmental Reporting, honoring Edward W. “Ted” Scripps II Distinguished Service to the First Amendment, honoring Edward Willis Scripps Excellence in Narrative Human-Interest Storytelling, Honoring Ernie Pyle Excellence in Innovation, honoring Roy W. Howard Excellence in Local/Regional Investigative Reporting Excellence in Local Video Storytelling, honoring Jack R. Howard Excellence in Multimedia Journalism Excellence in National/International Investigative Reporting, the Ursula and Gilbert Farfel Prize Excellence in National/International Video Storytelling, honoring Jack R. Howard Excellence in Opinion Writing Excellence in Visual Journalism Impact Award Teacher of the Year Administrator of the Year

History Origins: Ernie Pyle Award What became the National Journalism Awards were launched in 1954 with the Ernie Pyle Award (originally supported by the Ernie Pyle Memorial Fund). The award is given annually to reporters who "most nearly exemplify the style and craftsmanship for which Ernie Pyle was known". The award was administered by the E. W. Scripps Company until the 1962 formation of the Scripps Howard Foundation. The Ernie Pyle award was later named the "Human Interest Writing Ernie Pyle Award" and is now presented as "Excellence in Narrative Human-Interest Storytelling, Honoring Ernie Pyle."

1960s and '70s In 1966, Scripps-Howard Newspapers conservation editor Edward J. Meeman died, and the company created the Edward J. Meeman Foundation to support journalism and conservation through grants and awards. Beginning in 1968, the Edward J. Meeman Environmental Reporting Award became the second annual award given by Scripps-Howard. Previous winners of the environmental reporting award include Ken Ward Jr., Sam Roe, Bruce Ingersoll, James V. Risser, Larry Tye, and Craig Flournoy. In 2022, the award was renamed as "Excellence in Environmental Reporting, honoring Edward W. 'Ted' Scripps II."

In the 1970s, three more awards became part of the roster of journalism prizes. First, in 1972, was the Public Service Reporting Award, honoring long-time Scripps executive Roy W. Howard. The public service award was originally divided into a newspaper division and a broadcast division. In 1986, the award was restructured to recognize newspapers only, and divided into two categories — under 100,000 and over 100,000 circulation. In 2004, the circulation divisions were eliminated altogether; the award was discontinued after 2016.

In 1974, the Editorial Writing Walker Stone Award, joined the list. Currently known as the "Walker Stone Award for Opinion Writing," it was named in honor of Walker Stone (1905–1973), editor-in-chief of Scripps-Howard Newspapers.

In 1977, the First Amendment Edward Willis Scripps Award was inaugurated. "Given to the editor of the winning newspaper for distribution to the individual or individuals on the staff who contributed most significantly to the cause of the First Amendment guarantee of a free press," the award is now known as "Distinguished Service to the First Amendment, honoring Edward Willis Scripps."

By the end of the 1970s, the Scripps Howard Foundation was presenting a total of five annual journalism awards.

1980s In 1980, Scripps Howard added the College Cartoonist Charles M. Schulz Award, which was "funded by United Features Syndicate ... to honor Charles M. Schulz on the 30th anniversary of his comic strip, Peanuts;" Schulz himself served as a judge in the award's early years. After being presented for 30 years, the award was discontinued in 2011 "due to the lack of entries to merit its continuance."

In 1985, the Jack R. Howard Broadcast Awards for Public Service Programming began being represented. A broadcasting award, it was divided into radio and television, with each format broken into two sub-categories — large market and small market; so, four new awards. In 1991, the TV division was renamed "TV/Cable" and in 2004, the Broadcast Awards did away with the market categories, reducing the prizes awarded each year to two. After 2008, the public service programming award was restructured/eliminated.

In 1987, the Scripps Howard Foundation, in commemoration of its 25th anniversary, officially dubbed the awards the National Journalism Awards and distributed them at a banquet held in April. The total amount of cash prizes and plaques given out was worth $41,000. That same year, the Literacy Charles E. Scripps Award, began being presented, given "to any daily broadcast and/or newspaper or local cable system in the U.S. or its territories for most outstanding effort ... to overcome illiteracy in its community." The separate awards for broadcast and newspaper outlets were abandoned in 1997 (reducing two prizes to one), and the literacy award itself was discontinued after 2003.

1990s In 1998–1999, Scripps Howard added five new categories to the National Journalism Awards (three of which have since been discontinued).

First, the Commentary award lasted from 1998 to 2014; while the award for Excellence in Photojournalism, also launched in 1998, was renamed in 2017 as "Excellence in Visual Journalism" ("the visual documenting of some of the year’s most complex issues and events"). As of 2022, it is currently awarded as "Visual Human-Interest Storytelling."

In 1999, a new award debuted: the Business/Economics Reporting William Brewster Styles Award, recognizing "the long-time business editor for The Cincinnati Post." The award is currently called "Excellence in Business/Financial Reporting."

2000–2008 The year 2000 saw two new awards join the list: Editorial Cartooning and Web Reporting; both of which have since been discontinued. Editorial Cartooning lasted from 2000 to 2011, while Web Reporting lasted from 2000 to 2008.

The period 2004–2008 saw the addition of five new categories of awards (and the retirement of one, the Literacy Award).

In 2004, in partnership with the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, two new categories joined the roster: Teacher of the Year and Administrator of the Year. Also joining the list in 2004 was the Investigative Reporting Ursula and Gilbert Farfel Prize (now given as the "National/International Investigative Reporting, the Ursula and Gilbert Farfel Prize").

In 2005, Scripps-Howard took over the administration of the Raymond Clapper Memorial Award, which had previously been given at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner. Renaming it the Washington Reporting Raymond Clapper Award, the prize was presented through 2011, when it was discontinued.

2009–present The period 2009–2012 saw the elimination of a number of awards, including those for Public Service Broadcasting (2009), Web Reporting (2009), the Raymond Clapper Award (2012), the two cartooning awards (2011 and 2012, respectively), and Commentary (2014).

In 2010, the National Journalism Awards were renamed the Scripps Howard Awards. In addition, two new prizes joined the roster: Coverage of Breaking News and the Jack R. Howard Award for In-Depth Radio Coverage, later amended to "Excellence in Radio/Podcast Coverage, honoring Jack R. Howard." In 2022, the award was renamed "Excellence in Audio Storytelling, honoring Jack R. Howard".

In the period 2013–2017, eight new prizes joined the Scripps Howard Awards roster. First was the Digital Innovation award, now known as "Innovation, honoring Roy W. Howard." 2016 saw four new awards, including two for video storytelling: the Jack R. Howard Award for Television/Cable In-Depth Local Coverage (currently known as "Local Video Storytelling, honoring Jack. R. Howard") and the Jack R. Howard Award for Television/Cable In-Depth National and International Coverage (currently known as the award for "National/International Video Storytelling, honoring Jack R. Howard"). Also debuting in 2016 (in partnership with the Google News Lab) was the Scripps Howard Award for Community Journalism (now known as the award for "Local/Regional Investigative Reporting"). The final new award to debut in 2016 was the Topic of the Year Award; now known as the "Impact Award", the "winner is deemed to have had the greatest impact from the list."

The newest award category in the Scripps Howard Awards is Multimedia Journalism, which debuted in 2018.

List of awardees Excellence in Audio Storytelling, honoring Jack R. Howard Formerly known as the Jack R. Howard Award for In-Depth Radio Coverage and then Excellence in Radio/Podcast Coverage, honoring Jack R. Howard.

Year Winner/organization 2009 Alix Spiegel, National Public Radio 2010 NPR 2011 WLRN, Miami Herald News 2012 WBEZ, Chicago Public Media 2013 This American Life 2014 Chicago Public Media, Serial: Season One 2015 Aleem Maqbool, BBC News 2016 Michigan Radio 2017 Laura Heaton and Michael Ma, NPR's Rough Translation 2018 Michigan Radio 2019 Lynn Arditi, Sally Eisele, James Baumgartner, The Public's Radio, Rhode Island 2020 Invisible Institute, The Intercept, and Topic Studios 2021 NBC News 2022 American Public Media

Coverage of Breaking News Year Organization 2009 Associated Press 2010 CNBC 2011 The Arizona Republic 2012 The Denver Post 2013 The Arizona Republic 2014 St. Louis Post-Dispatch 2015 The Post and Courier, Charleston, SC 2016 East Bay Times 2017 San Francisco Chronicle 2018 South Florida Sun Sentinel, Deerfield Beach 2019 The Washington Post 2020 Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN 2021 The Tennessean, Nashville, TN 2022 The Washington Post

Business/Financial Reporting Formerly known as the Business/Economics Reporting William Brewster Styles Award and the William Brewster Styles Award for Business/Economics Reporting.

Year Individual Winner Organization 1998 Richard Read The Oregonian, Portland 1999 Tom Hallman Jr. The Oregonian, Portland 2000 Doris Hajewski Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 2001 The Wall Street Journal 2002 Chicago Tribune 2003 Clint Riley The Record, Hackensack, New Jersey 2004 The Wall Street Journal 2005 The Seattle Times 2006 Steve Everly The Kansas City Star, Missouri 2007 The Wall Street Journal 2008 Farah Stockman The Boston Globe 2009 Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Florida 2010 Paige St. John Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Florida 2011 ProPublica 2012 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 2013 International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Center for Public Integrity 2014 Rita Price and Ben Sutherly The Columbus Dispatch 2015 The Wall Street Journal 2016 Center for Public Integrity, McClatchy, and the Miami Herald 2017 Brian Grow and John Shiffman Reuters 2018 International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, NBC News Investigative Unit, Associated Press, and more than 50 media partners 2019 Dominic Gates, Mike Baker, Steve Miletich, and Lewis Kamb The Seattle Times 2020 The New York Times 2021 ProPublica 2022 Los Angeles Times

Environmental Reporting, honoring Edward W. "Ted" Scripps II Formerly known as the Environmental Reporting Edward J. Meeman Awards.