TORONTO, Dec. 1, 2021 /CNW/ - The National Newspaper Awards has begun accepting entries for the 2021 competition.

Entries will be accepted in 22 categories between December 1, 2021, and January 15, 2022. Finalists will be announced in mid-March, and winners will be announced on Friday, May 6, 2022.

To be eligible, an entry must have been published first in 2021 by an eligible organization, with the work having been performed by an eligible entrant, as defined under the contest Rules of Entry. Rules can be viewed at http://nna-ccj.ca/rules/. Entry procedures can be viewed at http://nna-ccj.ca/tips-on-entering/. Categories can be viewed at http://nna-ccj.ca/entry-categories/.

As part of its ongoing commitment to make the competition more diverse and inclusive, the NNA Board of Governors previously announced changes to entry fees. Freelance journalists who enter the competition on their own, rather than having their work submitted by the eligible organization that published the work, will be charged $20 per entry, well below the regular fee of $50. Work submitted by digital news organizations, outside the traditional realm of newspapers, will also be charged at $20 per entry.

Organizations that participate in the NNA Benefactor Program will pay $40 per entry; traditional (non-digital) news organizations that do not participate in the program will pay $50 per entry.

The program is strongly encouraging eligible news outlets, from both the traditional newspaper realm and digital organizations, to submit the best work done in 2021 by journalists from equity-seeking groups, including BIPOC and LGBTQ+.

The 22 categories remain unchanged from the 2020 competition.

After opening for entries on December 1, categories will be closed to entries on a staggered basis, with final deadlines as follows:

• Arts and Entertainment Sunday, January 9
• Beat Reporting Saturday, January 15
• Breaking News Saturday, January 15
• Breaking News Photo Saturday, January 15
• Business Tuesday, January 11
• Columns Tuesday, January 11
• Editorial Cartooning Sunday, January 9
• Editorials Sunday, January 9
• Explanatory Work Tuesday, January 11
• Feature Photo Sunday, January 9
• General News Photo Thursday, January 13
• International Thursday, January 13
• Investigations Saturday, January 15
• Local Reporting Tuesday, January 11
• Long Feature Thursday, January 13
• Politics Thursday, January 13
• Presentation/Design Thursday, January 13
• Project of the Year Saturday, January 15
• Short Feature Saturday, January 15
• Sports Saturday, January 9
• Sports Photo Tuesday, January 11
• Sustained News Coverage Thursday, January 13

This is the 73^rd year of the awards, which were established in 1949 to encourage excellence and reward achievement in daily newspaper work in Canada.

Thanks to Cision for sponsoring this announcement.

SOURCE National Newspaper Awards