An independent panel of five jurors evaluated the entries and selected the finalists. The jurors were: Chair Philip Meyer, Emeritus Professor, and former Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of North Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communication; David Boardman, Executive Editor of The Seattle Times; Peter Desbarats, veteran print and television journalist and former Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of Western Ontario; Diane Hawkins-Cox, former Senior Producer for the Science and Technology Unit at CNN; and Robert B. Semple, Jr., Associate Editor of the Editorial Page for The New York Times.
The winner and Award of Special Merit recipients will be formally recognized at a prize ceremony and seminar to be held October 5, 2009, at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.