Iowa Business-for-Good Journalism Contest
First Annual Iowa Business-for-Good Journalism Contest
The Iowa Business-for-Good Journalism Contest is a statewide, dual-byline competition for teams of two college students: one in journalism and one in business. Student reporting for the contest submission should explore how businesses and organizations in Iowa can create both economic value and societal benefit. Entries can focus on a specific case or examine a broader issue. Open to students at accredited Iowa colleges and universities, the prize awards cash to winning teams and their schools. Selected pieces will be considered for publication by the Des Moines Business Record.
Eligibility
- Teams of two students enrolled at an accredited Iowa college/university. Students need not be from the same university.
- Teams must consist of one journalism (or comm/media) student and one business (or econ/accounting/analytics) student
- One submission per student
Prizes
- 1st: $1,000 to the team + $1,000 to the winning school
- 2nd: $500 to the team + $500 to the school
- 3rd: $250 to the team + $250 to the school
- Certificates for finalists and honorable mention
Key dates
- Submission deadline: May 1, 2026
- Winners announced: By June 1, 2026
Entry rules
- Originality: New work created Sept 1, 2025–April 15, 2026 – must not be previously publicly published.
- Word count: 1,500–2,000 words.
- Multimedia requirements:
- 1 feature image (min 2400 px on the long edge)
- 1 original visualization (submit the underlying data file + short methods note)
- Portraits of quoted sources (student-shot or provided)
- Any 2 additional assets (photos, short video ≤60s w/ captions, graphics)
- Accessibility: Alt text for images; captions/transcripts for A/V.
- Social: Provide one post (image + 1–2 sentence caption) suitable for web/social.
Hints for Success
- Apolitical stance: Focus on policy impacts on business; no campaign/electioneering or op-ed advocacy.
- Not accepted: Pure company puff profiles; single-target exposés lacking broader context; campaign/election stories.
- Be about business in Iowa, whether for-profit or non-profit, and the issues that impact it. Stories can be local to your area or have a statewide focus.
- Be solution oriented. If there is a challenge, we want to know who is involved in solving it, as well as all the various perspectives surrounding that solution.
- Be proactive, giving readers information they don’t know they need.
- Be community driven, focusing on people with lived experience in the issue you are covering
- Provide analysis of the issue and its business or economic impact. Judges will be looking for multi-faceted, layered reporting, providing different perspectives and analysis of what effects will be.
Editorial & rights
- Teams retain copyright and grant the Business Record and organizing partners a non-exclusive license to publish, adapt headlines/deks, and promote on web/social.
- Publication is at editors’ discretion and may require revisions on deadline; failure to cooperate may forfeit publication.
How to submit (one ZIP or folder)
- Final story (.docx or .gdoc export)
- Methods note (1 page): how you reported, data sources, limitations
- Fact-check memo (bullet list of claims → sources)
- Signed source consent for photos/video; location permissions if on private property
- Visuals (original filenames), alt text, and captions; data files (CSV/XLSX)
- Social post asset + caption
- Dual-byline contribution statement (3–5 sentences on who did what)
- Faculty advisor (optional) name/email
Governance & contacts
- Entries judged by a panel including editors, business faculty, and industry pros; COIs recuse.
- Rules/eligibility questions: Jeff Inman (jeff.inman@drake.edu).
- Organizing partners include Drake’s Zimpleman College of Business, the Drake School of Journalism & Mass Communication, Iowa Newspaper Foundation, and the Business Record.