Final Days to Apply for the CJF Greg Clark Award

TORONTO, March 12, 2013 /CNW/ - With only a few days left, early-career journalists are encouraged to apply for The Canadian Journalism Foundation Greg Clark Award. The deadline for applications is March 15, 5:00 p.m. EST.

The Greg Clark Award is unique in Canadian journalism, designed to offer working journalists a chance to gain insight and meet key decision-makers on their beats. The successful applicant(s) will get an opportunity to spend up to a week observing the inner workings of an organization not usually accessible to the working journalist.

The award was created in memory of one of Canada's greatest journalists - a war correspondent, an avid outdoorsman, a humourist, but above all, a great reporter who excelled at storytelling.

Last year's winner Tamara Baluja, who recently joined J-Source as associate editor, used her Greg Clark Award experience to explore positive change in First Nations' education in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia. Read the report of Baluja's experience and her articles in The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star.

Award Criteria

• Applicants will be welcomed from Canadian journalists who have been employed for one to five years and are employed by, under contract to, or freelancing on the news and editorial side of regularly published newspapers and periodicals, TV and radio news broadcasters, and online publications.
• Applicants must agree that any information gathered is off-the-record unless the sponsoring organization agrees otherwise.
• Successful applicants will write a brief summary of their experience upon completion of their professional development opportunity.

How to Apply

• Submit a proposal of no more than two pages outlining how such a professional development opportunity would expand your knowledge of your beat and help you in your daily work.
• Provide two examples of your beat work.
• Include a resume.
• Include at least one letter of recommendation from a relevant employer.

The winner will be honoured at the 16^th Annual CJF Awards, to be held this year at The Fairmont Royal York in Toronto on June 13.

If you know of early-career journalists who deserve this opportunity, please encourage them to apply. For full details, visit http://cjf-fjc.ca/awards_gregclark. We've now made it easier to apply with an online form.

The CJF would like to thank CNW and the Toronto Star for their generous support of this award. About The Canadian Journalism Foundation The Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF) is a not-for-profit organization that promotes excellence in journalism by celebrating outstanding journalistic achievement through an annual awards program; by operating journalism websites, J-Source.ca (English) and ProjetJ.ca (French), in cooperation with the country's leading journalism schools; by organizing events that facilitate dialogue among journalists, business people, government officials, academics and students about the role of the media in Canadian society; and by fostering opportunities for journalism education, training and research.

SOURCE Canadian Journalism Foundation