TheWrap secured seven first place wins at the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards, including a Best Entertainment Blog win for founder, CEO and editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman’s “Waxword.”
TheWrap as a whole also won second place in the category of Best Entertainment Website, Online.
Other first place winners included Alexei Barrionuevo, Adam Chitwood, Matthew Creith, Jeremy Fuster, Natalie Korach, Andi Ortiz and Drew Taylor. Barrionuevo and Korach took home the honor for Best Music Feature, Online for their deep dive into the aftermath of the Hamas attack on the Supernova music festival, “Death in the Desert: When Hamas Came to an Israeli Rave, Friends Perished.” The piece was described as “A compelling and moving account of a music festival and its tragic aftermath through the words of those affected” by one of the organization’s judges.
In the Hard News category as it related to TV and streaming, Fuster won for “5 Days to End the Strike: When Writers and Studios (Finally) Hit a Contract Breakthrough.” “This story goes deep inside to show the final days leading to a settlement of the Writers Guild strike,” a NAEJ Awards judge wrote.
On the film side of Hard News, Drew Taylor won for “The Final Days of ‘Coyote vs. Acme’: Offers, Rejections and a Roadrunner Race Against Time,” his exploration into how Warner Bros. Discovery came to shelve one of its movies. A NAEJ Awards judge noted that the piece “explains a lot about the film business these days where a picture deemed a potential underperformer can be worth as much as a tax write-off, never to be seen by audiences.”
When it came to the Obituary/In Appreciation category for TV Personalities in both print and online, Creith won for “Norman Lear Blazed a Path for Pushing Political Buttons on Network Television.” “This appreciation for the man and his moment in history expertly combines poignance and hard truths about the time we’re in,” a judge wrote of the piece.
In the Best Celebrity News, Online category, Andi Ortiz won for her insightful “Three Years After Britney, Wendy Williams Shows Celebrity Conservatorships May Still Be Toxic to Women.” “A well-crafted, judiciously reported look at the double standards plaguing conservatorship, presented with compelling insight and detail while avoiding sensationalism,” a judge wrote of the piece.
Finally, Chitwood won in the Best Personality Profile, TV/Streaming Industry — Under 2,500 Words category for his heartfelt “Bill Hader Had an ‘Emotional Comedown’ After Ending ‘Barry.’” The profile was described as “fascinating” by a NAEJ Awards judge. “The author has a lot to work with with the subject matter, and he takes it and runs with it,” they wrote.
Those weren’t the only awards Chitwood and Taylor won. The two also took home a second place win in the Soft News, Film Related category for their deep dive, “The 4K Blu-ray Collectors Market Is the Future of Physical Media.” Steve Pond also won in the Personality Profile, Film Industry — Over 2,500 Words, Print category for his examination of Martin Scorsese, “The Lion in Winter.”
The publication also had two third place winners. Kayla Cobb and Loree Seitz earned bronze in the Diversity in the TV/Streaming Industry, Online category for their article “The Rise of Women’s Sports Isn’t a Moment, It’s a Movement.”
The National Entertainment Journalism Awards were founded in 2008 to recognize the work of U.S.-based entertainment reporters and editors. The awards also includes theater, film and television critics across print, radio, TV and online. Though TheWrap is often a presence at this awards show, the organization’s seven first place wins is a step up from the two the publication took home in 2023. That year also saw Waxman win Best Entertainment Blog for “Waxword.”
