Rookie of the Year honors a new journalist with less than 18 months’ experience in the field.  Journalists are nominated by their member publication and are required to submit five clips as well as a letter of recommendation.  Nominations are accepted through the Editorial Contest.  2015 marked the first year for this award. 

Sponsored by the MDDC Press Foundation, the Michael S. Powell High School Journalist of the Year honors an outstanding senior staff member of a Maryland, Delaware or District of Columbia high school newspaper. The winner receives a $1,500 cash award and is honored at the MDDC Editorial Awards in the Spring. 

The Freedom of Information Award is named for Jim S. Keat, a retired editor and foreign correspondent for the Baltimore Sun, who was a long-time advocate for public information access. Keat is a member of the MDDC Hall of Fame.

The Designer of the Year Award recognizes a single designer showing creativity and ability to design across platforms.

The Salesperson of the Year Award honors a sales executive that runs circles around their peers.

The Sales Rookie of the Year Award honors a new sales executive with less than 18 months’ experience in the field. Winners demonstrate revenue generation, sales expertise and initiative.

A free press cannot be swept aside or silenced.  This award honors acts of courage in journalism and strength in adversity while uncovering truth.  The Courage in Journalism Award was established in memory of those killed at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis in 2018 and in honor of those who survived. 

Established in 2004, the Distinguished Service Award annually recognizes an MDDC volunteer whose extraordinary service effort has made a profound and lasting difference to MDDC organization and membership.

Each annual winner is presented an engraved bowl at MDDC’s Hall of Fame & Distinguished Service Award Program, traditionally held in late May. In addition, a $500 contribution is made to the MDDC Press Foundation in the winner’s name.

The Website of General Excellence Award is based on a publication website’s social media and engagement, local news coverage, navigation and design, multi-media/data visualization and mobile responsive design.

The MDDC Hall of Fame, established in 1947, honors outstanding newspaper professionals whose careers were marked by excellence at news media organizations in Maryland, Delaware or the District of Columbia. Members of the hall date back to the 19th century and hail from rural weekly papers, metro-area dailies and everything in between.

The Hall is located in the College of Journalism Building at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland College Park. Election to the Hall is a distinctive honor, and to be nominated a person must be or have been long-employed at a news media organization that either is a member or eligible to be a member of the Association.

Nominate someone for the Hall of Fame.