Billboard Earns 7 Nominations for the 2026 L.A. Press Club Southern California Journalism Awards

The Los Angeles Press Club has named its finalists for the 2026 Southern California Journalism Awards, and Billboard turned up seven times across photography, feature writing and culture news.

For more than 60 years, the L.A. Press Club’s SoCal Journalism Awards has been, as the organization puts it, about “calling attention to LA’s fine journalists while promoting excellence in new and emerging media.” The annual awards span print, audio, television and online work, with categories that run from faith reporting and hard news to cultural criticism, photography and graphic design. This year, Billboard is represented in two photography categories, three feature categories and one entertainment news category.

“Weird Al” Yankovic photographed at Dust Studios on April 17, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Joe Pugliese/Billboard

In Portrait Photo, Entertainment, Heather Hazzan, Grayson Khos, Jenny Sargent and Samantha Xu are nominated for their portraits of Gracie Abrams from Billboard’s April 19, 2025 print issue. Joe Pugliese, Jenny Sargent and Samantha Xu are also up for Entertainment Photo, Single Image for a photo of June 2025 Billboard “Indie Power Players” cover star “Weird Al” Yankovic.

Billboard picked up two nominations in Feature, Entertainment, Over 1,000 Words. Executive editor, features Rebecca Milzoff is recognized for her profile “‘Weird Al’ Yankovic on His Unexpected Longevity, Biggest Tour Ever & Creative Freedom: ‘Nobody Owns Any Piece of Me’,” which appeared in the same “Indie Power Players” issue as the nominated photo. Executive editor, West Coast/country Melinda Newman is also 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 in Feature, Under 1,000 for “Country Power Players Innovator: BigXThaPlug.” Rounding out the feature categories, staff writer Hannah Dailey is up for Entertainment Feature, Theater/Performing Arts Related with “Meet the College Marching Bands Who Play Hits By Chappell Roan, Tyler, the Creator & More.”

Billboard contributor Sophie Dunne was also nominated in Culture News, Events for her Coachella piece, “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. The full list of finalists is available here.

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