Judging will finish by the end of March 2026, and the list of finalists and winners will then be collated and cross-checked. The list of finalists will be announced in April.

Winners will be announced on Friday 22 May 2026.

1. Go to voyagermedia.awardsplatform.com
2. If you already have an Award Force account, please log in. If you have forgotten your password, click on the ‘forgot password’ link.
3. If you don’t already have an Award Force account, please register (your password must be at least 12 characters) and follow the steps to complete your profile.
4. Before you click on “Start new entry” you will need to go to your email and click on the verification link (in an email from the Voyager Media Awards). You may need to refresh the web page.
5. If the verification email doesn’t show up in your email, check your junk/spam folder.
6. Once you begin the entry process you can “save + close” your entry/entries and go back to edit them later.
7. Once you submit an entry, you can go back into the system at any time to make changes – up until the entry deadline of 5pm Friday 20 February 2026.

Yes, every award must be entered online.

Entries from NPA member organisations are charged at $75 +gst per entry, while entries from non-NPA member organisations are charged at $150 +gst per entry. Most media organisations will be invoiced in bulk for their total number of entries shortly after the closing date. If you are a journalist working for one of the organisations listed on the dropdown menu on the first tab of your entry, you should select your publishing group’s name. If you are a freelance journalist, you should select ‘Freelance’ from the dropdown menu and pay by credit card prior to submitting your entry/ies.

Discounted entry fee:  $75 +gst – This fee applies to entries from NPA members.
Standard entry fee: $150 +gst – This fee applies to all other entries that are not eligible for the discounted entry fee.

NPA members include the organisations shown below. If you are not working for one of these organisations then you must select the non-member entry price.

Material must be supplied as follows:

• Stories should preferably be submitted as URL links – if an online version isn’t available, pdfs are acceptable.
• Photos should be in jpg, jpeg, tif or tiff format and have captions within the file name.
• Videos or interactive/motion graphics can be uploaded in m4v, mp4, mpeg4 or MOV format or, in the case of large files, attached as a URL link such as YouTube or Vimeo.
• Artwork/graphics should be ai or eps format
• Cartoons should be in jpg or pdf format
• Podcasts should be uploaded as a single, clearly-named MP3 (or WAV). You should also supply URL links for each episode, both to Apple Podcasts and to an Android podcast app such as Stitcher or Spotify.

Please give attachments an appropriate name that depicts what the entry is about.  All photos should have captions.

Entrants may include a statement of support giving background to your entry. Each category has a specific word maximum. Please refer to the entry criteria.

The list of awards offered at the 2026 Voyager Media Awards is the same as was offered in 2025.

In 2024, the number of awards was reduced to align more closely with similar journalism awards internationally and ensure that the epitome of excellence was highlighted – the very best in New Zealand journalism as relevant today.

The 2026 Voyager Media Awards offers a place for every journalist and for every type of journalism, celebrating work across print, digital, video and audio including reporters, feature writers, columnists, cartoonists, animators, reviewers, photographers and video journalists.

We have brought our entry fees more closely in line with other similar journalism awards both locally and globally. Entry fees help us to run these Awards and ensure that quality New Zealand journalism is recognised and celebrated.

Broadcast journalists/artists/cartoonists/video journalists/editors can enter appropriate awards in the Audio, Digital and Video category and/or the All Media category.

Broadcast journalists may also enter ‘written only’ awards in the Written category if their entry has appeared in written form, eg on a supporting website.

Entrants will need to ensure judges can access stories and websites behind a paywall. Please email the Voyager Media Awards team at voyagermediaawards@npa.co.nz with instructions or passwords to give access to judges.

Yes, the entry website will run on all devices including smartphones. However, entrants will not be able to upload attachments using an iPhone or iPad due to Apple’s policy on attachments.

No – the Voyager Media Awards no longer accepts hard copies. Supporting material for ALL awards must be supplied electronically. This includes all newspaper, newspaper magazine and magazine awards which previously required hard copies.

All entries must bear cover dates from the 2025 calendar year. For example, a magazine that appears on newsstands or reaches subscribers in late December 2025 but has a cover date of January 2026 is not eligible (it will be eligible for the 2027 Media Awards).

The same rule applies to journalists’ work appearing in print. A publication that appeared in December 2024 but has a January 2025 cover date is eligible. A publication with a December 2024/January 2025 cover date will be eligible, as will a publication with a December 2025/January 2026 cover date.

Digital entries must be published within the 2025 calendar year.

Digital News Provider of the Year will be partially judged live during March 2026.

Yes, your entry must have been published or broadcast during 2025 in a recognised form of New Zealand-based newspaper, magazine, website, or television or radio station.

Qualifying media include:

• Daily and weekly newspapers
• Regional, metropolitan or community newspapers
• News and current affairs websites or apps
• Publications sold at newsstands or by subscription, or a combination of both*
• Free publications*
• Newspaper-inserted magazines
• Specialist and trade publications and/or websites*
• Local television and radio stations

* Eligible publications must appear at least quarterly and must target a mass audience.

Eligibility for all award categories will be at the sole discretion of the NPA.

Metropolitan Newspaper of the Year
A metropolitan newspaper is a paid newspaper, published daily, servicing a large city.**

Regional Newspaper of the Year
A regional newspaper is a paid newspaper that is published at least 3 times a week and whose content is focused on matters of regional importance in addition to national and international news.**

Weekly Newspaper of the Year
A weekly newspaper is a paid newspaper that is published once a week and focuses on serving a specific weekly audience segment e.g. interest group, community group, location or day.**

Community Newspaper of the Year
A community newspaper is a newspaper whose content is focused on, but not limited to, matters of community importance.  It can be paid or free and would not typically fit the criteria of any of the other newspaper awards.**

**Entries to the 2026 Voyager Media Awards must have been published in New Zealand during 2025.

Not necessarily. Entrants must be either New Zealand citizens, permanent residents aged 16 and over or students on a working visa and living in New Zealand at the time the work was published. This includes New Zealanders working overseas.

Podcasts can be entered into Best Original Podcast or Series, Best Current Affairs (long) or Documentary, Best Current Affairs (short) and Best Investigation.

Yes, where stated in specific award criteria. This could be a two-part story, or two parts from a specific series. Follow-ups to an original story do not qualify as a two-part submission.

If you are including a two-part story or two parts of a multi-part series, you should include the URL link to the first part of the story in the URL link box and the URL link to the second part of the story within your statement of support. You should also include headlines and publication details for each URL link within your statement of support. URL links to a two-part or multi-part series cannot be uploaded to the same box.

Yes, there is no restriction on the number of awards you may enter.

While you can enter as many awards as you want, you are only able to enter the same piece of work into a maximum of two different awards, otherwise you risk being disqualified.

One entry per person or team, with the following exceptions:

• You can enter up to two times to the same award only if one entry is from you as an individual and one entry is a team entry.
• Media organisations can nominate up to THREE candidates for Editorial Leader of the Year – or up to FIVE candidates for media organisations with an employee base of more than 500.
• Media organisations may enter Best Innovation in Digital Storytelling and Best Original Podcast or Series multiple times.
• Editors and publishers may enter newspaper and website awards multiple times, if the publications are different.

You can enter any of the award categories. Best Up and Coming Journalist and Best Up and Coming Feature Writer are open to individuals who have been employed as a journalist or active as a freelancer for three years or less at the time of publication.

Student journalists, including interns, can enter any award, including Best Up and Coming Journalist and Best Up and Coming Feature Writer.

The News Publishers’ Association in consultation with senior publishers and editorial directors.

No, they do the job as a contribution to journalism. The judges work in pairs for each award. The names of the judges will not be announced until April 2026, when judging is complete.

Email the Voyager Media Awards team at voyagermediaawards@npa.co.nz