Click on the report cover to read our 2025 Impact Report in full.
In 2024, the A-Mark Foundation took an important step by revisiting and refining our mission. We clarified our purpose to focus squarely on supporting and promoting journalism, with a special emphasis on investigative reporting.
In 2025, A-Mark supported and promoted investigative journalism through three programs.
1. The A-Mark Prizes for Investigative Reporting awarded $15,000 in prize money per state for the best investigative work in 30 states in 2025.
2. The A-Mark Journalism Master’s Scholarships provided $10,000 each to 23 students pursuing master’s degrees in journalism.
3. The A-Mark Student Journalism Awards launched at nine community colleges with $5,000 awards to support student journalists working on their college newspapers.
In total, the Foundation awarded $829,752 in grants across its three programs in 2025, comprised of $589,652 for the A-Mark Prizes, $195,000 for A-Mark Journalism Master’s Scholarships, and $45,100 for A-Mark Student Journalism Awards.
Our Impact Report for 2025 focuses on the A-Mark Prize, which just completed its first year of nationwide expansion. The report highlights insights from Prize hosts and winning journalists, illustrating how the Prize supports investigative reporting, elevates impactful work, and brings visibility to journalism that serves the public interest. While our two scholarship programs are currently in their first year of implementation and do not yet have outcomes to report, they represent a significant investment in the future of journalism and will be a growing focus of impact reporting in the years ahead.
Selected Feedback
“As a young journalist, this recognition ignited a new confidence in me as a writer. I did not take the traditional route into journalism … so I constantly consider my place in this field and ask myself: what makes someone a journalist? … Since the ceremony, I’ve been writing more boldly, pursuing ideas, stories, and thoughts I once shelved for good. … The A-Mark award didn’t just honor past work – it shifted how I see my future in this field. I am truly honored, from the bottom of my heart.”
– Eleanor Knight, Audible & Western Sound, Florida 1st place
“Recognition like A-Mark’s, along with the accompanying financial support, helps make the next big investigation possible. It’s both a validation and an incentive to keep pursuing ambitious, difficult stories.”
-Trevor Aaronson, Audible & Western Sound, Florida 1st place
“I am still in disbelief from the award ceremony and am honored to have been awarded Arkansas’ first A-Mark Prize. Since my recognition, I have been promoted to morning anchor and will continue to write investigations. I feel as if winning the award solidified my position at the station and am now trusted to cover some of the top stories.”
– Jessica Ranck, KARK and Fox16, Arkansas 1st place
“This was the first major investigation I have led in Indianapolis, and it is personally very gratifying to have that work recognized by the judges of the A-Mark awards. As 2024 was our first full year in existence, recognition like this helps justify the importance of investigative journalism even for a community newsroom. It certainly helps us make the case for continued watchdog coverage.”
– Emily Hopkins, Mirror Indy, Indiana 3rd place
“Winning the A-Mark Prize helped demonstrate to our readers that we are doing important journalism with limited resources. We like to say that we punch above our weight at the Journal Star, and being recognized in this way certainly has put some heft behind that. … We have a small staff so it can be difficult to carve out time to do investigative work while trying to fill the daily paper. I think it has inspired others in our newsroom to think critically about how they can dig deeper into the areas they cover and served as a model for the kind of work we believe we can do.”
– Chris Dunker, Journal Star, Nebraska, 1st place
“Awards in journalism very rarely come with money. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how much this can mean in a profession where we aren’t raking in the big bucks. With the A-Mark Prize, I was able to pay off some credit card and student loan debt, pay a car bill and put some away in savings. This was huge for me! MassLive has been working to elevate its enterprise and investigative journalism as a core pillar of our strategic plan for the future. The A-Mark Prize was widely celebrated in our newsroom.”
– Hadley Barndollar, MassLive, Massachusetts 1st place
“Winning the A-Mark prize was the most exciting and rewarding moment of my professional life thus far. I felt – and still feel – truly honored. It redoubled my commitment to producing quality investigations, knowing that hard work does not go unnoticed. I am so grateful to the A-Mark Foundation for the vote of confidence. Even though Carolina Public Press already prioritizes investigative work, this prize had a real effect on the excitement around projects like this one, both in myself, my colleagues, and the higher-ups.”
– Jane Winik Sartwell, Carolina Public Press, North Carolina 2nd place
