The purpose of the Wincott Foundation’s annual awards is to recognise outstanding achievement in the field of business, economic and financial journalism. While the inspiration for the awards comes from the columns written by Harold Wincott in the 1950s and 1960s, the scheme is designed to cover a wide range of styles and formats, from analytical features on economic issues to reporting on companies and industries.
Eligibility and judging criteria
The criteria that the Foundation’s judges take into account are clarity, depth of understanding, objectivity and, above all, the ability to communicate complex topics in a way that is intelligible to the lay person but also authoritative, so that both experts and non-experts can learn from it.
As far as individual journalists are concerned, reporters as well as commentators can qualify for the awards, and entries from freelance journalists are welcomed. Journalists working in more than one medium are encouraged to demonstrate the full range of their delivery. Individual reporters and commentators can apply, as can teams engaged in a specific story, broadcast or data journalism project.
Print and online entries should consist of up to five examples of work. For video and audio, in the case of a series only one programme may be entered along with a description of the series.
You can enter directly and/or nominate others. If you do the latter, please send us their contact details.
Award Categories
From 2020, there are seven categories that work can be entered for.
Journalist of the Year: to the individual, or team, making the best contribution to financial, business and economic journalism. (Up to £5,000)
Personal Finance Journalist of the Year: to the individual, or team, making the best contribution to reporting, analysis or investigations of personal finance issues. This can be via any media channel. (£1,500)
Young Journalist of the Year: to the best individual journalist under the age of 30 at the end of 2020, working in any medium. (£1,500)
UK Nations and Regions Journalist of the Year: to the individual or team in any medium making the best contribution to business journalism in the UK nations and regions. (£2,000)
Audio Journalism of the Year: awarded to the team or individual producing the best audio work, including on-line and podcasts. This can be a single programme or a series of programmes. (Up to £5,000)
Video Journalism of the Year: awarded to the team or individual producing the best video work, including terrestrial, digital and film. It can be a single programme or a series of programmes. (Up to £5,000)
Data Journalism of the Year: awarded to the team or individual showing the best use of data analysis and visualisation tools to tell a complex story. (Up to £5,000)
To read about the winners of the 2020 awards for journalism, click here.
Wincott Lifetime Achievement Awards
Occasionally, an award is made for lifetime achievement in business, economic and financial journalism. Previous recipients are:
2015 – Sir Geoffrey Owen (click here for details)
2018 – Michael Robinson (click here for details)
How to apply
All entries should be emailed to wincottawards@gmail.com.
The subject line should specify the category and the email should state:
• Entrant’s/nominee’s name, or names (maximum of five), and role(s)
• The category that the submission is being entered for
• Name of the publication or channel
• Date(s) of publication or broadcast
• Titles of the articles or programmes (with episode number, if applicable)
• Short synopsis (max 200 words)
• Link to YouTube or Vimeo submission (video/audio category)
• A supporting letter from an editor may be included
It is very important that the judges can easily access the entries. ‘Light’ documents can be attached to the email eg in pdf form. If the submissions are over 1MB, the body of the email must contain attachments in doc or pdf form (text must be copyable) to the full version. Please do not send links to articles that are behind a paywall.
Please upload audio and/or visual entries to Vimeo or Youtube as an unlisted post and ensure that a downloadable copy can be made.
For any further queries regarding print or online entries, please contact director@wincott.co.uk
For audio and video, please contact: lidia@dartmouthfilms.com