THR's Next Gen issue featuring Teyana Taylor was nominated for best print issue at the 2026 SoCal Journalism Awards. Taylor was photographed by Sharif Hamza on Oct. 25, 2025 at Quixote Studios in West Hollywood. Photographed by Sharif Hamza The Hollywood Reporter has been nominated for a brand record 65 SoCal Journalism Awards, including journalist of the year for Seth Abramovitch, Gary Baum, Mikey O’Connell and Alex Weprin, nods for film and TV critics David Rooney, Angie Han and Daniel Fienberg and honors for best print issue and best website.
Other noms include Baum for best columnist and Scott Feinberg for best anchor/host in audio journalism as well as mentions across numerous other categories including social media, photography, video, features, investigative, illustrations and blogs.
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The winners of the 68th SoCal Journalism Awards, overseen by the Los Angeles Press Club, will be announced at a gala taking place June 28 at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
The L.A. Press Club also will honor several individuals with special honors, including NBC’s Craig Melvin (President’s Awardee for Impact on Media), Filipino and American journalist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa (Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism), ABC7’s Rob Fukuzaki (Lifetime Achievement Award) and Carol Sobel (Guardian Award for Contributions to Press Freedom).
This marks a record number of noms for THR at the SoCal Journalism Awards. These noms follow on the heels of its record-breaking 85 noms at the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. THR also recently won a Webby People’s Voice Award in the category of Entertainment, General Desktop & Mobile Sites (Websites & Mobile Sites) and was nominated for a Mirror Award for the first time for Steven Zeitchik’s “Last Call for Late Night,” about the decline of an American institution under unprecedented political and economic pressure.
A full list of THR’s nominations follows. Click here for the full list of this year’s finalists.
JOURNALISTS OF THE YEAR
PRINT, over 50,000 circulation * Gary Baum * Mikey O’Connell
ONLINE JOURNALIST, tied to an organization * Alex Weprin
ONLINE JOURNALIST, independent/freelance * Leena Tailor
ENTERTAINMENT JOURNALIST * Seth Abramovitch
ALL MEDIA PLATFORMS Print, Radio, Podcast, TV or Online.
TECHNOLOGY REPORTING * Alex Weprin, “YouTube Just Ate TV. It’s Only Getting Started”
TRAVEL REPORTING * Leena Tailor, “From Snoop Dogg and NSYNC to Post Malone and Bon Jovi: The Diverse and Transformative New Wave of Celebrity Bars Shaking Up Nashville”
COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS OF FILM * David Rooney, “‘Jaws’: The Prototype Summer Blockbuster Turns 50, Losing None of Its Bite”
CRITICISM OF FILM (Over 1,000 Words) * David Rooney
CRITICISM OF TV * Angie Han * Daniel Fienberg
CRITICISM OF THEATER/PERFORMING ARTS * David Rooney
PRINT/ONLINE – ANY OUTLET, including news bureaus and correspondents. Enter individually or as a team.
PUBLIC SERVICE NEWS or FEATURE * Nicole Fell, “How Watch Duty Became an Essential Resource for Angelenos During Wildfires”
HUMOR/SATIRE WRITING * Mikey O’Connell, “I Lost My Home in the L.A. Wildfire. This Is What I’m Holding On To.”
ART/PHOTOGRAPHY All Platforms
ENTERTAINMENT PHOTO, Single Image * Ash Barhamand, Alison Edmond, Erik Madigan Heck, “Tim Burton + Jenna Ortega”
ILLUSTRATION * Lincoln Agnew, Ada Guerin, Nicholas Brawley, THR Art Dept, “The Exiles of Tehrangeles”
COVER ART * Ash Barhamand, Alison Edmond, Peter B. Cury, AB+DM, “Ariana Grande” * Maer Roshan, Ada Guerin, Neil Jamieson, THR Staff, “The New Face of Hollywood” * Maer Roshan, Ada Guerin, Christopher Hughes, THR Staff, “This Is Not Keanu”
BEST ISSUE * Ash Barhamand, Alison Edmond, Sharif Hamza, Ada Guerin, “Teyana Taylor”
PRINT — ANY OUTLET
EDITORIALS * Ryan Gajewski, Darah Head, “Parm to Table: Dan Tana’s Was a Cut Above”
BUSINESS REPORTING An article or series * Gary Baum, “Is Dana White the Most ‘Untouchable’ Whale in Vegas?”
LIFESTYLE FEATURE * James Hibberd, “Knives Out: Celebrities Reveal Plastic Surgery Secrets — But One Procedure Still Taboo”
GENDER AND SOCIETY REPORTING * Nicole Fell, “K-pop Has Its Ellen Moment”
MAGAZINES, Including magazines with L.A. bureaus
INVESTIGATIVE * Rebecca Keegan, “This Is Not Keanu: Inside the Billion-Dollar Celebrity Impersonation Bitcoin Scam”
COMMENTARY * Steven Zeitchik, “I Sat Down to Dinner With Rob, Michele and Nick Reiner. It Was Heartwarming and Jarring.”
FEATURE, Business/Government (Over 1,000 Words) * Seth Abramovitch, “Crumbl, The Cookie That Broke the Internet * Alex Weprin, “Mickey vs. Shrek: Inside the Multibillion-Dollar Theme Park War”
FEATURE, Culture and Society (Over 1,000 Words) * Peter Kiefer, “Vanessa Bryant vs. Hollywood: Inside the Secret Kobe Bryant Footage You May Never See”
FEATURE, Entertainment (Over 1,000 Words) * Gary Baum, “Prize Fight: Inside an Oscar Family Feud”
ENTERTAINMENT FEATURE, TV/Streaming Related * Rebecca Keegan, Gary Baum, “Unmasking Hollywood’s Most Mysterious Movie Mogul” * Beatrice Verhoeven, “How ‘F1: The Movie’ Was Filmed at Real Grand Prix Races, With Brad Pitt and Damson Idris Driving 180 MPH”
FILM FEATURE * Katie Kilkenny, “The Microdrama Production Gold Rush Is Here” * Lacey Rose, Everybody Wants This! How a Netflix Rom-Com Went From Near Implosion to Cultural Obsession”
ENTERTAINMENT FEATURE, Theater/Performing Arts Related * Seth Abramovitch, “David Blaine Has One More (Deadly) Trick Up His Sleeve”
ENTERTAINMENT NEWS * Katie Kilkenny, “Trump’s Man With a Plan in Hollywood Opens Up”
PERSONALITY PROFILE, Film Personalities * Lacey Rose, “The Second Coming of Ariana Grande”
PERSONALITY PROFILE, TV Personalities * Carly Thomas, “Martin Short Has an Invitation for Bill Murray”
PERSONALITY PROFILE, Music/Theater Personalities * Nicole Fell, “Rosé Can’t Chill”
PERSONALITY PROFILE, Politics/Business/Arts Personalities * Seth Abramovitch, “How Ben Shapiro Conquered the MAGA-verse” * Gary Baum, “The Righteous Fury of Spencer Pratt” * Julian Sancton, “Courtroom Magician Joe Tacopina Saved A$AP Rocky’s Life — Now Diddy’s Knocking on his Door”
TELEVISION/FILM Broadcast, including online and cable TV, produced in Southern California.
LIFESTYLE FEATURE * Harry Buerkle, Tiffany Taylor, Jason Rovou, Maer Roshan, “Meet the Video Store Owner Defying the Streaming Era”
ENTERTAINMENT NEWS or FEATURE (Over 5 Minutes) * Katie Kilkenny, Lesley Corral, Jason Rovou, Felipe Borges, Paul Silva, “Altadena Fire Victim Returns to Burned Down Home After L.A. Wildfires in Search of Family Heirloom” * Seija Rankin, Jason Rovou, Lesley Corral, Stephanie Fischette, Maer Roshan, “Jennifer Lawrence, Cynthia Erivo, Amanda Seyfried & More at the THR Actress Roundtable”
AUDIO JOURNALISM — Radio broadcast, podcast or stream produced in Southern California.
ANCHOR/HOST * Scott Feinberg
ONLINE, Exclusively published on the Internet.
ENTERTAINMENT NEWS, Film/Broadcast * Seth Abramovitch, “Conan O’Brien Threw a Holiday Party to Forget a Bad Year. Then Nick Reiner Arrived.”
ENTERTAINMENT NEWS, Music/Performing Arts * Lina Lecaro, “Running for Cover(s): A Look at the Grammys’ Newest Category”
ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTING, Flora & Fauna * Rebecca Keegan, “Is ‘Yellowstone’ Ruining Yellowstone?”
NEWS FEATURE, Music/Culture/Performing Arts related * Leena Tailor, “Tears, Spaceships and Nostalgia: How Backstreet Boys “Pushed the Limits” of Las Vegas’ Sphere With “Mind-Boggling” Residency Launch”
SOFT NEWS FEATURE, General News * Lexy Perez, “Talk Dirty to Me: Inside Hollywood’s Audio Erotica Craze”
FILM FEATURE, Documentaries/Animation/Indies * Lily Ford, “The Rage of ‘Adolescence’: Inside the Single-Shot Sensation Blowing Up the Manosphere” * Scott Roxborough, “Jafar Panahi: The World’s Most Acclaimed Dissident Filmmaker”
FILM FEATURE, Production Histories, Business * James Hibberd, Peter Keifer, “Paramount Never Made Taylor Sheridan an Offer to Stay: How TV’s Biggest Partnership Fell Apart”
FILM FEATURE, Production Histories, Shows * Leena Tailor, “How New Kids on the Block’s Jonathan and Jordan Knight Breathed New Life Into HGTV”
MUSIC FEATURE, Solo Artists * Leena Tailor, “Taylor Swift: Tribute Acts Are Saving Lives, Pocketing Paychecks and Finding Fame”
THEATER/ARTS FEATURE * Scott Feinberg, “’Getting to Do It for an Audience, It’s Like Drugs’: 7 Tony Nominees on Jumping Between Hollywood and Broadway”
PERSONALITY PROFILE, Film/TV Personalities * David Canfield, “Laura Dern Reflects on a Year of Personal Grief, Industry Anxiety and Great Movies”
COLUMNIST on Entertainment/Media * Gary Baum
ENTERTAINMENT COMMENTARY, Film/TV * Abbey White, “‘The Bear’ Is Really a Work Warning for All of Us”
BLOG, GROUP * Aaron Couch, Borys Kit, “Heat Vision” * Jackie Strause, Rick Porter, Tony Maglio, James Hibberd, Etan Vlessing, “Live Feed”
WEBSITE, TRADITIONAL NEWS ORGANIZATION * The Hollywood Reporter Staff, “hollywoodreporter.com”
SOCIAL MEDIA, Judged on content, creativity and engagement.
BEST USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA TO ENHANCE and/or COVER A STORY By a Group * Harry Buerkle, Jason Rovou, Ryan Fish, Maer Roshan, “White. Hot. Lotus.” * Jordan Watson, Jason Rovou, Ryan Fish, Lesley Corral, Maer Roshan, “When roundtable talent knows their worth”
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