Contributing Medium Award

The Contributing Medium Award is given to a media outlet or publication, person, or people, who have provided outstanding support to scholastic journalism either to an individual school, a school district or MIJA, in some form.

Past winners have provided at varying times speakers for high school programs, printed school newspapers, offered tours of their facilities, provided financial support, and more.

Please consider nominating a deserving media organization, business, individual or group for this honor by completing this online nomination form by Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025.

The honoree and/or the nominator will be invited to prepare a 30-second acceptance video to run at the spring JDay on the MU campus.

Winners since the award was reinstated in the spring of 2016:

• 2016 – Mitch Pence with Photographx, Kansas City
• 2017 – Leigh Kolb, English and journalism instructor at East Central College, Union
• 2018 – KMBC 9 News, Kansas City
• 2019 – Jeanne Miller Wood, Missourian, Franklin County
• 2020 – Jason Wallestad and Tom Hutchinson, founders SNO Sites
• 2021 – —-
• 2022 – Josh Ayers, local Newspaper Editor of The Dexter Statesman, Dexter
• 2023 – —-
• 2024 – —-
• 2025 – —-

*If you were a past Contributing Medium winner or know of one prior to 2016, please share, as we’d love to update our page!