As part of the annual Online Journalism Awards showcase, we are delighted to announce the 2024 recipients of the ONA Community Award, the Impact Award and the James Foley Award for Conflict Reporting. These awards look beyond individual journalism projects to recognize individuals or small groups who have made exceptional contributions to the industry.
Benét J. Wilson
The ONA Community Award honors a person, small team or community that has created inclusive working environments for their colleagues to deliver game-changing journalism and achieve their best work. Honorees stand out for fostering a strong sense of belonging and inclusion in the journalism community. In 2024, the award goes to veteran aviation trade journalist Benét J. Wilson, whose extraordinary contribution to journalism lives through the hundreds of journalists she has mentored.
Each year members of the Online News Association (ONA) have the opportunity to nominate peers for consideration for the award. As one member shared, “Few people have done as much for as many journalists as Benét Wilson, and many of us are still here in and around journalism because of her.”
Through her work at various journalism organizations, in her day job and as a volunteer, Benét—also known as Aunt Benét—has helped many journalists build careers, navigate their biggest challenges and find their place in the industry. For years, she has worked behind the scenes to make journalism a better place for journalists of color, including through the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), the JOC Slack community, scholarships to attend industry conferences and more.
Benét was previously Director of the Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship, and she has served on the boards of the ONA and the NABJ. At ONA, she helped guide the organization as Board Vice President and was a strong advocate for media diversity as well as mentoring and career development programs, including ONA’s HBCU Digital Media Fellowship and the MJ Bear Fellowship.
The Impact Award honors trailblazing individuals whose work in digital journalism and dedication to innovation exhibits a substantial impact on the industry. The ONA board of directors selected Sarah Alvarez, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Outlier Media, and Candice Fortman, a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University and most recently the Executive Director of Outlier Media, as joint recipients in 2024.
Sarah Alvarez (left) and Candice Fortman (right)
Outlier Media is a service journalism organization filling information, accountability and connection gaps in Detroit. The newsroom identifies, reports and delivers valuable information to equip Detroiters to hold people and systems accountable for harm and to contribute to a thriving community. As leaders, Sarah and Candice have driven journalism innovation and inspiration through their approach to co-leadership, centering community information needs, leveraging technology and sharing lessons with the industry.
Sarah’s impact includes the development of Outlier’s core product, an SMS service that texts critical info to residents and connects them directly with reporters. Her methodologies are now being used by journalism organizations across the world. Before founding Outlier Media in 2015 as a JSK Fellow, she worked in civil rights law, nonprofit management and public radio.
Candice’s leadership enhanced Outlier’s mission to provide equitable access to news while building an organization that challenges traditional journalism and serves as a model worldwide. Before joining Outlier, she was Marketing and Engagement Manager at WDET 101.9, Detroit’s NPR station. She also spent several years in the commercial radio industry. Candice now sits on the boards of Outlier Media and Cityside and is an advisory board member for OpenNews and Baltimore Beat.
Loay Ayyoub
For nearly a decade, the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation and the Online News Association have worked together to honor independent digital journalists who produce exceptional reporting under the most challenging conditions. In 2024, the selection committee for the James Foley Award for Conflict Reporting granted this year’s honor to Loay Ayyoub, a Palestinian photojournalist from Gaza who has produced work for The Washington Post, The Guardian, the Financial Times and NPR.
Loay graduated from Al-Azhar University in Media, Journalism and Public Relations. He started his career as a freelance photographer for The Washington Post, covering daily life and major events in Gaza. He was reporting on the ongoing crisis nonstop from October 7, 2023, until he left for Egypt in March 2024, on the 166th day of the war.
“Loay is one of those photographers who, when war came to Gaza, just worked,” the selection committee noted. “He picked up his camera and worked. He worked despite displacement and worked through the anguish of the death of colleagues. He worked through having to leave his family behind. He worked diligently, producing incredible images of the war unfolding around him.”
Get to know Loay Ayyoub’s photojournalism.
The 2024 Online Journalism Awards Luncheon and Ceremony is happening Sept. 20 in Atlanta, a special celebratory event within 2024 Online News Association Conference (ONA24). CNN anchor and correspondent Amara Walker will host the ceremony, which will honor the recipients of these three awards as well as reveal winning projects in five categories that were open for submissions.
Tickets to the OJAs are available through the ONA24 registration portal, either as an add-on to a conference pass or as a standalone purchase. We offer a discounted rate to ONA members.
Note: Winners for 18 of the categories that were open for submissions were announced on Aug. 16, and the remaining five categories are Excellence in AI Innovation, Excellence in Social Justice Reporting, Gather Award in Community-Centered Journalism, Knight Award for Public Service and General Excellence in Online Journalism.
Explore finalist and winning projects in the 2024 OJAs Learn about ONA membership and join your peers
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Karolle Rabarison
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