The Los Angeles Press Club announced finalists for the 2026 Southern California Journalism Awards and Billboard has received seven nominations.
For more than we 60 years, the L.A. Press Club’s SoCal Journalism Awards has been “calling attention to LA’s fine journalists while promoting excellence in new and emerging media.” Every year, the press club honors journalists across print, audio, television and online platforms in categories spanning everything from faith reporting to hard news, cultural criticism to photography and graphic design. This year, Billboard is nominated across two photography, three feature and one entertainment news categories.
In the category of Portrait Photo, Entertainment Heather Hazzan, Grayson Khos, Jenny Sargent and Samantha Xu received a nod for their portraits of Gracie Abrams for the April 19, 2025 issue of Billboard‘s print magazine. Joe Pugliese, Jenny Sargent and Samantha Xu are up for Entertainment Photo, Single Image for a photograph of June 2025 Billboard “Indie Power Players” cover star ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic.
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Billboard snagged two nominations in the Feature, Entertainment (Over 1,000 Words) category. Billboard’s executive editor, features Rebecca Milzoff is up for her story “‘Weird Al’ Yankovic on His Unexpected Longevity, Biggest Tour Ever & Creative Freedom: ‘Nobody Owns Any Piece of Me’” from the same “Indie Power Players” issue as the nominated photograph of Weird Al. Meanwhile, executive editor, West Coast/country Melinda Newman is nominated for “Welcome to Koe Country,” her March 2025 cover story on country singer Koe Wetzel ahead of last year’s SXSW.
Staff writer Michael Saponara is nominated for his story “Country Power Players Innovator: BigXThaPlug” in the Feature (Under 1,000) category. Closing out the nominations in feature categories, staff writer Hannah Dailey is up in Entertainment Feature, Theater/Performing Arts Related for “Meet the College Marching Bands Who Play Hits By Chappell Roan, Tyler, the Creator & More.” Finally, Billboard contributor Sophie Dunne received a nod in the Culture News, Events category for her Coachella report “Coachella 2025 Expands ‘Soberchella’ With More Non-Alcoholic Options Than Ever.”
The winners of the 68th annual Southern California Journalism Awards will be announced on Sunday June 28. See the full list of this year’s finalists here.
