Sidney Awards
Hillman Announces the September 2009 Sidney Winner
The Hillman Foundation announced today (Wednesday, October 14) that Jennifer Gonnerman has won the September Sidney Award for “Last Home Standing,” her piece in the September 14 issue of New York magazine, about the struggle of Jacqueline Tamaklo, one of the millions of victims of predatory mortgage scandals in the country. Read more
Hillman Announces the August 2009 Sidney Winner
At a time when most newspapers are undergoing painful downsizing which sharply limits their capacity for investigative reporting, the East Valley Tribune devoted six stories and more than 10,000 words to a detailed and devastating dissection of the multiple abuses associated with Arizona's Private School Tuition Tax Credits program. The stories by Ryan Gabrielson and Michelle Reese were based on the newspaper’s examination of thousands of pages of state and federal tax records and private school enrollment data from the past 12 years. Read more
Hillman Announces the July 2009 Sidney Winner
The Hillman Foundation announced today (Monday, August 10) that Matt Taibbi is the winner of its July Sidney Award for "The Great American Bubble Machine," a 9,966 word dissection of how Goldman Sachs has been manipulating markets to enrich itself since its founding in the 19th Century. Read more
Hillman Announces First Sidney Winner
The Hillman Foundation announces 17-year-old Victoria Cruz as the winner of the Sidney for her June 25, 2009 WNYC segment "Best Couple." In the radio piece, done for the station's Radio Rookies program, and broadcast on "Morning Edition and "All Things Considered, " Ms. Cruz reports on how she and her girlfriend became the first same-sex couple at their Bronx, NY high school to receive the "Best Couple" award in their yearbook.
For more than fifty years, the Sidney Hillman Foundation has awarded the Hillman prizes, which are among the most prestigious honors in journalism. In 2009, the foundation inaugurated the Sidney, a monthly award for an outstanding piece of socially-conscious journalism. We are looking for investigative work that fosters social and economic justice.
To be eligible for consideration, the piece must be published in an American magazine or newspaper or appear on an American news site or blog, or broadcast by an American outlet. To be eligible for the July award, the piece must appear sometime during the month of June, for the August award, sometime in July, and so on. The issue date on the cover of a magazine will determine its eligibility. For example, if an article appears in a magazine which is published in May, but carries a June cover date, that article would be eligible for the July award. All nominations must be submitted not later than the last day of the month, for consideration for the following month's award.
If you wish to nominate yourself or a piece by anyone else, please click here for our nomination form.
The foundation will announce each winner by the 10th day of the month. The prize will be a certificate accompanied by a check for $500, a union-made bottle of wine, and a certificate designed especially for the Sidney by New Yorker cartoonist, Edward Sorel.
If you have any further questions about the nomination process, please send your inquiry to ckaiser@hillmanfoundation.org