URL Media co-founders S. Mitra Kalita and Sara Lomax have won the 2024 National Press Foundation’s Chairman’s Citation.

URL Media aims to increase coverage of, by and for ethnic audiences by creating a network of brown and Black news organizations.

“Their work champions and elevates traditionally marginalized voices, especially in the local news space,” NPF Chairman of the Board Terence Samuel said.

Sara Lomax, co-founder and president of URL Media, is also the president and CEO of WURD Radio, Pennsylvania’s only African-American-owned talk radio station.

S. Mitra Kalita, co-founder and CEO of URL Media, is also CEO and publisher of Epicenter-NYC, and an award-winning veteran journalist, media executive, commentator and author. She has also worked at the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Quartz and the Washington Post.

They accepted the award at NPF’s Annual Journalism Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 20.

Established in 1996, the NPF Chairman’s Citation is awarded at the sole discretion of the National Press Foundation chair. It recognizes individuals whose accomplishments fall outside the traditional categories of excellence but who nevertheless have a profound impact on journalism.

Previous winners include Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was wrongfully detained by Russia, Mo News founder Mosheh Oinounou, CNN’s Sanjay Gupta, Report for America co-founders Charles Sennott and Steve Waldman and the late two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anthony Shadid.