The Toner Prizes for Excellence in Political Reporting recognize the best U.S. national or local political reporting in any medium or on any platform—print, broadcast or online.
Two prizes—the Toner Prize for Excellence in National Political Reporting and the Toner Prize for Excellence in Local Political Reporting—are awarded annually by the Newhouse School. Each includes a $5,000 honorarium.
Entries are judged on how well they reflect the high standards and depth of reporting that marked Robin Toner’s work. Judges look for how well the entries:
Entries must be fact-based reporting, not commentary. Single articles, series or a body of work are eligible. Books are ineligible. The local category is for local political reporting, published in a local publication.
Each entry is limited to four stories. A news organization may enter more than one reporter or team, but the same reporter or team can be entered only once. Reporters may enter their own work, but can enter only once. There is no entry fee.
The work must have been reported, published, posted or broadcast between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2025.
If you have any questions, please contact tonersym@syr.edu.
First presented in 2011, the Toner Prizes for Excellence in Political Reporting highlight and reinforce quality, fact-based political reporting—work that illuminates the electoral process, reveals the politics of policy and engages the public in democracy.
They are named after Robin Toner, who covered five presidential campaigns, scores of Congressional and gubernatorial races and most of the country’s major political figures during her nearly 25-year career at The New York Times. A 1976 graduate of Syracuse University, Toner earned a bachelor’s degree as a dual major in journalism from the Newhouse School and political science from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.
Toner died in 2008, leaving a husband and two young children. To honor her legacy, family and friends established the Toner Program in Political Reporting at the Newhouse School.