2025 Australian IT Journalism Awards
Taking home a Lizzie is the ultimate accolade for technology journalists and communicators. To enter you will need to present three to four stories and we recommend also attaching supporting arguments to help the judges understand the context and background to your story.
All entrants to journalism categories will receive a complementary ticket to the event. These tickets are not transferable and when complementary ticket is made available to each entrant.
Coverage awards
The coverage awards aim to recognise editorial quality by a team of journalists working for a single masthead. These awards must include submissions from multiple journalists (excluding Best Independent, which is open to individual entries under a one person masthead).
This award will recognise the publication that has produced the most impactful and important technology news coverage during 2023.
- Entries must include the work of more than one journalist
- You should enter four stories
Criteria:
Subject Matter: Judges will score the subject matter out of 10, based on originality, importance, general interest and usefulness.
Insight: Judges will score the story for insight out of 10, based on accuracy, value of insights, as well as the quality and relevance of the sources/opinions.
Content Quality: Judges will score the story out of 5, based on writing/production quality, flair and entertainment.
This award will recognise the publication that has delivered the most useful and interesting content about consumer technology for consumers. This might include technology such as PCs, gadgets, internet, digital culture and consumer electronics. It does not include gaming.
- Entries must include the work of more than one journalist
- You should enter four stories
Criteria:
Subject Matter: Judges will score the subject matter out of 10, based on originality, importance, general interest and usefulness.
Insight: Judges will score the story for insight out of 10, based on accuracy, value of insights, as well as the quality and relevance of the sources/opinions.
Content Quality: Judges will score the story out of 5, based on writing/production quality, flair and entertainment.
This awards the team whose work is most effective in meeting the information needs of a business audience. That can include business technology professionals such as CIOs, IT professionals and business executives, or professionals working within the technology industry or channel. This category is judged on the basis of BUSINESS value and impact.
- Entries must include the work of more than one journalist
- You should enter four stories
Criteria:
Subject Matter: Judges will score the subject matter out of 10, based on originality, importance, general interest and usefulness.
Insight: Judges will score the story for insight out of 10, based on accuracy, value of insights, as well as the quality and relevance of the sources/opinions.
Content Quality: Judges will score the story out of 5, based on writing/production quality, flair and entertainment.
This award will recognise the title that has delivered the best content about gaming for gaming consumers and/or the gaming industry/
- Entries must include the work of more than one journalist
- You should enter four stories
Criteria:
Subject Matter: Judges will score the subject matter out of 10, based on originality, importance, general interest and usefulness.
Insight: Judges will score the story for insight out of 10, based on accuracy, value of insights, as well as the quality and relevance of the sources/opinions.
Content Quality: Judges will score the story out of 5, based on writing/production quality, flair and entertainment.
This award will recognise the best writing or content created by non-commercial, or smaller scale content creators.
- Entrants must not have more than one full-time, paid staff member
- You should enter four stories
- The work submitted should not have first appeared in a commercial outlet - defined as an outlet generating enough income to support multiple full-time staff. An article that was originally created for this site, but then re-run on a commercial outlet is acceptable.
- This award can be entered by either a single individual or an independent website/outlet operated by independent individuals.
- May include any form of content, including blogs, reviews, news, video or audio.
Criteria:
Subject Matter: Judges will score the subject matter out of 10, based on originality, importance, general interest and usefulness.
Insight: Judges will score the story for insight out of 10, based on accuracy, value of insights, as well as the quality and relevance of the sources/opinions.
Content Quality: Judges will score the story out of 5, based on writing/production quality, flair and entertainment.
Beat awards
The Beat Awards aim to recognise individual journalists who demonstrate the greatest skill and expertise in delivering content for a particular audience or on a particular topic.
The Helen Dancer Best Consumer Technology Journalist award recognises the journalist who has best used the news and features format to cover important technology issues for a mainstream audience.
The Best Gaming Journalist award recognises the journalist who has best covered gaming and the gaming industry.
Criteria:
Subject Matter: Judges will score the subject matter out of 10, based on originality, importance, general interest and usefulness.
Insight: Judges will score the article for insight out of 10, based on accuracy, the value of the insights, and the quality and relevance of the sources/opinions.
Content Quality: Judges will score the articles, videos or podcasts provided for their quality out of 5, based on writing quality, production values, and entertainment value.
The Best Telecommunications Journalist award recognises the journalist who has best covered the telecommunication industries in Australia or New Zealand. This includes content written for and about the telecommunications sector.
Criteria:
Subject Matter: Judges will score the subject matter out of 10, based on originality, importance, general interest and usefulness.
Insight: Judges will score the article for insight out of 10, based on accuracy, the value of the insights, and the quality and relevance of the sources/opinions.
Content Quality: Judges will score the articles, videos or podcasts provided for their quality out of 5, based on writing quality, production values, and entertainment value.
Journalism awards
The Journalism Awards will recognise journalists who excel in particular forms of technology journalism.
This award will recognise the publication that has produced the most impactful and important technology news coverage during 2024.
Subject Matter: Judges will score the subject matter out of 10, based on originality, importance, general interest and usefulness.
Insight: Judges will score the article for insight out of 10, based on accuracy, the value of the insights, and the quality and relevance of the sources/opinions.
The Best Technology Reviewer award recognises the journalist who makes best use of the review format to review, rate and analyse the merits of different technology products (not video games)
Criteria:
Subject Matter: Judges will score the subject matter out of 10, based on originality, importance, general interest and usefulness.
Insight: Judges will score the article for insight out of 10, based on accuracy, the value of the insights, and the quality and relevance of the sources/opinions.
Content Quality: Judges will score the articles, videos or podcasts provided for their quality out of 10, based on writing quality, production values, and entertainment value.
The Best Game Reviewer award recognises the journalist who makes best use of the review format to review, rate and analyse video game software.
Criteria:
Subject Matter: Judges will score the subject matter out of 10, based on originality, importance, general interest and usefulness.
Insight: Judges will score the article for insight out of 10, based on accuracy, the value of the insights, and the quality and relevance of the sources/opinions.
Content Quality: Judges will score the articles, videos or podcasts provided for their quality out of 10, based on writing quality, production values, and entertainment value.
Subject Matter: Judges will score the subject matter out of 10, based on originality, importance, general interest and usefulness.
Insight: Judges will score the article for insight out of 10, based on accuracy, the value of the insights, and the quality and relevance of the sources/opinions.
The Alicia Camphuisen Best New Journalist award recognises the best newcomer to technology journalism. This award is open to journalists who began writing about technology after January 1, 2020 and who have no more than 3 years' experience as a professional journalist.
The Best Columnist award recognises the journalist who makes best use of the opinion format to communicate his or her ideas, thoughts and opinions via a column or blog.
Criteria:
Subject Matter: Judges will score the subject matter out of 10, based on originality, importance, general interest and usefulness.
Insight: Judges will score the article for insight out of 10, based on accuracy, the value of the insights, and the quality and relevance of the sources/opinions.
Content Quality: Judges will score the articles, videos or podcasts provided for their quality out of 10, based on writing quality, production values, and entertainment value.
The Best Audio Program award recognises the journalist or team who produce the best audio or podcast content covering either business or consumer technology.
Criteria:
Subject Matter: Judges will score the subject matter out of 10, based on originality, importance, general interest and usefulness.
Insight: Judges will score the article for insight out of 10, based on accuracy, the value of the insights, and the quality and relevance of the sources/opinions.
Content Quality: Judges will score the articles, videos or podcasts provided for their quality out of 5, based on writing quality, production values, and entertainment value.
The Best Video Program award recognises the journalist or team who produce the best video content covering either business or consumer technology.
(For both Program awards, entrants may submit up to two items not exceeding one hour of total combined runtime, and content may also be edited into a highlights package)
Criteria:
Subject Matter: Judges will score the subject matter out of 10, based on originality, importance, general interest and usefulness.
Insight: Judges will score the article for insight out of 10, based on accuracy, the value of the insights, and the quality and relevance of the sources/opinions.
Content Quality: Judges will score the articles, videos or podcasts provided for their quality out of 5, based on writing quality, production values, and entertainment value.
The Best Short Form Content award recognises the journalist or team which has best used short form mediums such as social media to break news, examine complex issues, and educate the public on matters of technology.
How to enter:
Please submit up to four items that do not exceed 1,000 words total, or 9 minutes in combined runtime via the Lizzies submission form.
Entries may consist of items shared on platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as other services which can be used to share short form content.
This category is exclusively for original, short form content created by individuals or teams, and not items which are specifically branded or sponsored.
Criteria:
Subject Matter: Judges will score the subject matter out of 10, based on originality, importance, general interest and usefulness.
Insight: Judges will score the article for insight out of 10, based on accuracy, the value of the insights, and the quality and relevance of the sources/opinions.
Communications awards
The Journalism Awards will recognise journalists who excel in particular forms of technology journalism.
The David Hellaby Best Media Relations award recognises PR professionals who have demonstrated an understanding of how they can most effectively work with the IT media. This is a “journalist choice” award, and is based on votes provided by journalists who are asked to nominate three PR professionals based on their interactions during the previous year.
Nominations are based on the following criteria:
1. Their understanding of the journalist's publication, audience and information requirements, via the pitching of relevant, useful and interesting story leads;
2. Their understanding of the journalist's workflows and deadlines, via effective and non-invasive interactions;
3. Their record in responding promptly, efficiently and fairly to journalists enquiries and requests
4. Their record in thinking creatively to attract journalist's attention and enhance the journalist/PR interaction;
5. Ethical conduct.
Commendations will be awarded to:
1. Highest scoring in-house PR professional.
2. Highest scoring boutique agency PR professional (Less than 5 employees).
3. Highest scoring large agency PR professional.
These commendations will be awarded where the winner is not the overall winner or Highly Commended.
The Best Corporate Content award recognises the individual or individuals who have created the best sponsored content, specifically for a particular company or brand.
How to enter:
1. Submit one example of work which does not exceed 6000 words in total.
2. Optional supporting arguments, helping the judge to understand the impact or success of the submitted work.
Criteria:
Subject Matter: Judges will score the subject matter out of 10, based on originality, importance, general interest and usefulness.
Insight: Judges will score the articles for insight out of 10, based on accuracy, the value of the insights, the quality and relevance of the sources/opinions.
Content Quality:
Judges will score the articles, videos or podcasts provided for their quality out of 5, based on writing quality, production values, and entertainment value
Gold Lizzies
The Gold Lizzies will recognise the journalist and outlet who have scored best throughout this year's Award program
The Best Title award recognises the title (magazine, website, or multimedia program) which is deemed to best serve the needs of consumers interested in technology content.
How to Enter:
WE DO NOT ACCEPT SUBMISSIONS FOR THIS AWARD.Criteria:
It is judged based on the overall scores and success of titles in the media and coverage categories. This is decided by a final judging panel. In the case where consensus is not reached by the judging panel, it will go to the title with the highest winning score across all categories.
The Best Journalist award will recognise the journalist judged to have produced the highest quality of work during the previous year, based on scores given in all other individual categories.
How to Enter:
WE DO NOT ACCEPT SUBMISSIONS FOR THIS AWARD.
Criteria:
It is judged based on the overall scores and success of a journalist in the individual categories. It is decided by a final judging panel. In the case where consensus is not reached by the judging panel, it will go to the journalist with the highest winning score across all categories.
