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

The Los Angeles Press Club has announced the finalists for the 2026 Southern California Journalism Awards, and Billboard is in the mix with seven nominations spread across photography, feature writing and culture news.

For more than 60 years, the SoCal Journalism Awards have aimed to spotlight Los Angeles journalism while pushing standards across both established and newer media. The annual awards cover a wide field, from faith reporting and hard news to cultural criticism, photography and graphic design. This year, Billboard’s recognition lands in two photography categories, three feature categories and one entertainment news category, reflecting the publication’s continuing footprint across music journalism’s many lanes.

In Portrait Photo, Entertainment, Heather Hazzan, Grayson Khos, Jenny Sargent and Samantha Xu were nominated for their portraits of Gracie Abrams from Billboard’s April 19, 2025 print issue.

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

Joe Pugliese, Jenny Sargent and Samantha Xu also earned a nomination in Entertainment Photo, Single Image for their photograph of June 2025 Billboard “Indie Power Players” cover star “Weird Al” Yankovic.

The publication picked up two nominations in Feature, Entertainment (Over 1,000 Words). Executive editor, features Rebecca Milzoff was recognized for “‘Weird Al’ Yankovic on His Unexpected Longevity, Biggest Tour Ever & Creative Freedom: ‘Nobody Owns Any Piece of Me’,” which ran in the same “Indie Power Players” issue as the nominated photograph. Executive editor, West Coast/country Melinda Newman is 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.” 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.” And in Culture News, Events, Billboard contributor Sophie Dunne was nominated for her Coachella dispatch, “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.