( Added: June 1, 2009 ) - Beginning in July 2009, The Sidney Hillman Foundation will inaugurate The Sidney, a new monthly award for an outstanding piece of socially-conscious journalism from a newspaper, magazine, web site, photojournalism essay, or any broadcast outlet. Nominations for the award can be submitted at http://hillmanfoundation.org/thesidneys and can be sent in by anyone, including the author of the work. Winners will receive $500 and a bottle of union-made wine. The deadline for submissions will be the last business day of the month.

The new monthly award is in addition to the annual $5,000 Hillman Prizes given in categories of books, newspaper articles, magazine articles, broadcast stories, blogs and photojournalism, which have been given continuously since 1950. They will continue to be awarded every year in May.

In conjunction with the new award, the Foundation is updating its website, starting with the addition of Full Court Press, a media blog by journalist Charles Kaiser. Now hosted by the Columbia Journalism Review website, Kaiser's blog has quickly become required reading for serious media watchers everywhere. Kaiser is a former reporter for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal and a former press critic for Newsweek. He is the author of 1968 in America and The Gay Metropolis. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Sydney Schanberg will also post Schanberg Reports from time to time.

For some of the most sophisticated press criticism on the web, visit: http://www.hillmanfoundation.org/fullcourtpress

Judges for the annual Hillman Prizes include: Hendrik Hertzberg, senior editor, The New Yorker; Harold Meyerson, editor-at-large, The American Prospect and columnist for the Washington Post; Katrina vanden Heuvel, executive editor, The Nation magazine; Susan Meiselas, photographer and author; and Rose Marie Arce, senior producer, CNN.

"The Sidney awards will further our mission of fostering a sense of social responsibility among journalists, especially at a time when these writers have to work harder than ever to get these stories published," said Bruce Raynor, president of the Foundation.

The Sidney Hillman Foundation is dedicated to promoting public education, culture and intellectual ideas both for and on behalf of workers. It was founded in 1947 in memory of Sidney Hillman, longtime president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and one of the most important labor leaders in American history. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt immortalized Hillman with his phrase, “Clear it with Sidney,” which evoked Hillman’s political influence in the New Deal. Since its founding, the Foundation has recognized top public figures and journalists ranging from Murray Kempton to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.