SPJ's Sunshine State Awards Journalism Competition Announces 2025 Honors

MIAMI, Sept. 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sunshine State Awards, Florida's largest and longest-running statewide journalism competition, has announced its 2025 honorees, recognizing outstanding work produced in 2024. The awards were presented this evening at a ceremony held at the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale.

This year marked the debut of the A-Mark Prize for Investigative Reporting, a new top honor supported by a grant from the A-Mark Foundation. The prize celebrates the essential role of investigative journalism in holding power to account, promoting transparency, and empowering citizens in a democratic society. A total of $15,000 in cash prizes was awarded to the following recipients:

• First Place: Trevor Aaronson and Eleanor Knight, for their Audible podcast series Pulse: The Untold Story
• Second Place: Kylie McGivern, Randy Wright, and Melanie Payne of WFTS-TV Tampa Bay, for their series Pay to Stay: Incarceration Fees Stifle Former Felons
• Third Place: Caroline Braucher and Jennifer Hunt Murty of the Ocala Gazette, for their series Deaths in Custody at the Marion County Jail

In addition to the A-Mark Prize and other special recognitions, journalists were honored across seven divisions:

• Print and Digital Writing
• Photography and Design
• Television and Video
• Radio and Audio
• Digital
• Spanish Language
• Students

View the full list of 2025 winners.

SPJ Florida presents the Sunshine State Awards in collaboration with the South Florida chapters of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the National Association of Black Journalists. Since 1994, the program has celebrated excellence in journalism, with entries judged by professionals and educators from outside the Florida market. Net proceeds are reinvested into training, programming, and advocacy for journalists.

The competition is open to professional print, broadcast, and online journalists in Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as out-of-state journalists who report on Florida. The Student Division welcomes entries from college and university students in Florida, with a dedicated category for high school journalists.

The 2026 Sunshine State Awards will open for entries in January.

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SOURCE SPJ Florida Pro Chapter