2022 Awards Dinner - Back In-Person!
Updated Thu May 26, 2022

The National Press Foundation Awards Dinner honored the best in journalism May 4, 2022, at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C. Videos highlights from the evening are featured below and on our YouTube page. And you can watch video of the full dinner program here.

After nearly two years in various forms of lockdown, this event gave attendees an opportunity to chat informally with top reporters, editors, policymakers, philanthropists, lobbyists and other influencers, and show support for the First Amendment.

Winners include Norah O’Donnell, CBS Evening News anchor and Managing Editor. She accepted the 2021 Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism.

NPF’s judges recognized O’Donnell’s leadership of the network’s news coverage over the tumultuous year, as well as her more than two decades of excellence in television news reporting.

The New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet appeared at the dinner, too, and accepted the Benjamin C. Bradlee Editor of the Year Award.

“No editor in America has navigated so many swirling challenges, or so well, as Dean Baquet,” said NPF judge and board member Tom Rosenstiel.

ProPublica founders Paul E. Steiger and Richard Tofel accepted the 2021 W.M. Kiplinger Distinguished Contributions to Journalism Award for creating a new model of nonprofit journalism when ProPublica was launched 14 years ago. Steiger gave the acceptance speech at the National Press Foundation awards dinner May 4, 2022.

Reporting from inside the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, helped Lisa Desjardins earn the 2021 Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress, for which she received a standing ovation. The National Press Foundation judges noted that Desjardins, who has covered Capitol Hill for the past 16 years, remained calm even as she reported on rioters shattering the doors of the building and streaming inside. She regularly covers Congress for the PBS NewsHour.

Washington Post journalists accepted the Innovative Storytelling Award for their coverage of how climate change fueled the destruction of Berry Creek, California.

Wall Street Journal staff accepted the 2021 Hinrich Foundation Award for Distinguished Reporting on Trade for their coverage of how China uses its money and leverage to build a global trade advantage. Five of the reporters accepted the award at the NPF dinner.

Two journalists from the Arizona Republic/azcentral.com accepted the 2021 Feddie Reporting Award for documenting the struggles of indigenous peoples to access and protect important religious sites on land controlled by the federal government. Debra Utacia Krol and Cheryl Evans accepted their award at the May 4, 2022 awards dinner in Washington, D.C.

And cartoonist Ruben Bolling won the 2021 Clifford K. and James T. Berryman Award for Editorial Cartoons. Bolling authors “Tom the Dancing Bug” among other parodies of well-known American cultural memes. In accepting the award, Bolling explained the thoughts behind some of his comics.

How to Attend and Sponsor Next Year

Table and sponsorship options for the event started at $3,500 for a table of 10 people. Premium sponsorships include tickets to the VIP cocktail reception — where guests could meet and mingle with the award winners — starting at $10,000 per table. Individual tickets were purchased for $350.

The event was held in accordance with all local guidance for indoor gatherings. To keep everyone safe, NPF required all guests and staff attending the receptions or the dinner to present a negative result on a same-day rapid antigen test for admission. NPF had extra staff on hand to make the check-in process as swift as possible.

To purchase a table, place an ad in the dinner brochure for 2023’s dinner, or explore other opportunities to participate in this event, please contact Jason Zaragoza at jason@nationalpress.org.

By supporting our award dinners, you are supporting NPF’s mission of training and educating journalists so they can succeed in a rapidly changing news environment. Your support for a healthy information ecosystem helps sustain American democracy.

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