National Press Club Journalism Institute

Tonight, we’re celebrating excellence in journalism at the 2024 Fourth Estate Award Gala! Mike Allen & Jim VandeHei, co-founders of Axios, will accept the National Press Club's highest honor, the Fourth Estate Award. Congratulations Mike & Jim! We'll also honor recipients of the Neil and Susan Sheehan Award for Investigative Journalism (Yvette Cabrera) and the Club's John Aubuchon Press Freedom Awards (Wael Al-Dahdouh and the staff of Mississippi Today ). The Fourth Estate Award Gala raises funds for the Club's nonprofit affiliate, the Institute. We are so grateful to our gala sponsors for their support: A big thank you to our Diamond sponsor Axios. Thank you to our Gold sponsor?Al Jazeera Media Network. Thank you to our Silver sponsors Bloomberg Philanthropies, News/Media Alliance, Robert Hastings & Associates, LLC, The Wall Street Journal. Our sincere gratitude to our Spirit sponsors Distilled Spirits Council of the United States & Responsibility.org. Thank you to our Bronze sponsors ADDIS PR, Ballard Spahr LLP, Bell Flight, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Eileen & Cary O’Reilly, General Dynamics, Global Situation Room, Inc., Scripps News, Syngenta, Toyota North America, Volunteers of America, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, Washington Intern Student Housing (WISH), The Washington Post. And thank you to our Patron sponsors The New York Times & Trib Total Media. Your generous support helps us expand the trainings we offer to thousands of journalists around the globe. And while tonight's gala is sold out, you can join us at 7 p.m. ET to livestream this inspiring event and celebrate excellence in journalism!

"Tell people you won’t stand down on values. You won’t self-censor. You won’t doubt whether the First Amendment matters any more. You won’t be bullied. You won’t refrain from calling out misinformation or devolve into false equivalencies. You won’t water down high-impact reporting for fear of retribution. Don’t just tell your staff about that; tell your community, too." -- Journalist & leadership expert Jill Geisler on how leaders can guide their teams through uncertainty and fear.

Generative AI is becoming a fixture in the?modern newsroom, with a myriad of uses including transcribing lengthy interviews, summarizing troves of data, and writing SEO-friendly headlines.?One of the pioneering newsrooms leveraging this technology is The?Haitian Times. We asked their editor in chief & chief operating officer Vania André how other journalists can use generative AI to improve efficiency. "We’ve been very deliberate about pushing the envelope on how we used this technology. My work integrating AI in our newsroom is less about using it for its natural language generative capabilities and more about exploring use cases for newsroom operations and testing its boundaries for analysis and critical thinking."

Journalists across the country have been working long shifts to cover the election results while grappling with what their profession might look like under a second Trump administration.?To see how journalists are experiencing this moment, we asked Vox Senior Politics Reporter?Christian Paz what concerns he has for the next four years and how he’s handled working at such a fast pace. "I love data and try to integrate it into all of my work. So going through counties, crunching numbers, trying to see trends if there are any — it’s that curiosity that’s keeping me going."

"Standing for truth means trusting your people and standing by them when critics yank their arrows from their quivers. No leadership behavior has quite the impact of what people feel when you have their backs." Leadership coach Mizell Stewart III offers three post-election tips for news leaders.

"Emotional burnout and covering traumatic events are ubiquitous in doing good journalism. Bad things happen, we report it, and we move on. However, even if the bad news is yesterday’s news in the paper, these things stick with us." We interviewed Rich Glickstein, a trauma therapist, social worker and former photojournalist, to learn how journalists and their editors can identify burnout, and how (and when) to get help.

We asked journalist & leadership expert Jill Geisler to share advice for how newsroom leaders can help guide their teams through this moment. "Remember that your team looks to you for cues, and the leader’s emotions are contagious. You may be genuinely concerned about threats to your journalism, but if you appear defeated or overwhelmed, they will feel it, too. If you convey realism and optimism about the need for robust journalism going forward, you can lift them up." Read more tips:

To help support journalists in the final stretch of #election2024 coverage, we asked Jennifer Nelson and Chris Young of Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press for a primer on journalists’ rights at the polls. "Election laws vary from state to state, so it’s important to know the ins and outs of the laws where you are working." Check out their tips & resources:

We're excited to welcome public radio journalist and educator Elliot Williams to the Institute team! As training coordinator, Elliot will develop and expand the Institute’s professional development portfolio, creating unique learning opportunities for journalists at all stages of their careers. “As a working reporter myself, I know that journalists are eager to hone their craft and support a strong democracy. I look forward to developing programs that address the unique challenges and opportunities journalists face today.”

The Institute is a proud sponsor of the #DXFest — the nation's first investigative film festival & symposium. Join us next week for the 10th edition of the Double Exposure Film Festival (Nov. 7-10). This year's festival reflects a world navigating through uncertainty—from AI and climate change to political polarization. These shifts present unique challenges for investigative filmmakers and journalists seeking the hidden stories of our time. Get tickets and learn more: