Women Entrepreneur Award Winners Announced!

This week, J-Lab announced their awards for three new media journalism projects started by women. The entrepreneurial news ideas - including franchises for community news sites, a food policy and strategies start-up, and a health Web site for women ages 18 to 27 - each won a $10,000 award to launch their projects.

What really excited me about this awards program was not only it's emphasis on female business leaders but the amount of submissions the competition received. The award winners were selected from a whopping 435 proposals focusing on diverse subjects like new ideas for geographic communities, racial and ethnic issues as well as health and environmental issues.

The number of proposals increased 129 percent from last year’s total of 190. This shows that women are feeling more comfortable about taking risks, stepping into leadership positions and making their ideas a reality.

From the press release,

“There was an incredibly competitive field of creative ideas to address specific issues proposed by women who have a great deal of optimism about the future of news and information,“ said Jan Schaffer, director of J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism, which administers the program. J-Lab is a center of American University’s School of Communication in Washington, D.C.

The Chicago-based McCormick Foundation funds the New Media Women Entrepreneurs initiative. “We are elated about the number and quality of the proposals,“ said Clark Bell, the foundation’s journalism program director. “This initiative showcases the energy, creativity and innovation of media entrepreneurs. These women are not waiting for the next big thing. They are determined to create it.“

Here are the winners:

ChickRx - Harvard MBA student Stacey Borden and partner Meghan Muntean will lead a team of women in launching an “edgy, approachable, engaging” online health resource uniquely targeted to women, ages 18 to 27. It will have content and Q&As, updated daily, from medical, family and nutrition experts, addressing such questions as: “Can drinking too much Diet Coke increase my risk of getting cancer?“ “Can I lose five pounds in week without starving myself?“ “Why am I unhappy, even though I know I shouldn’t be?“ Borden is the former campus relations director of 85 Broads, a national professional women’s group.

Women’s Community News Franchise - Former MytopiaCafe.com editor Michelle Ferrier will develop a complete infrastructure, to be franchised, for those who want to launch hyperlocal news sites. A demo site will launch later this year in West Volusia County, Florida, piloting services that will include a Web platform, software development, market analysis, some content, and legal and marketing assistance. Such an infrastructure, says Ferrier, will permit citizen journalists and community members to “focus on what they are most passionate about - building their community conversation through good local information and networking.“

The Good Food Fight - Three media-savvy Seattle women will connect consumers interested in food with larger public policy issues that affect food choices, security, safety, health and sustainability. Partners Kristin Hyde, Jen Lamson and Amy Pennington will use their deep experience in policy, marketing, journalism and digital campaigns “to leverage the growing concern and interest in food with a call to arms.“ They plan to use a business-to-business model as well as their own outreach to leverage support from subscribers, sponsors, donors and foundations.

Way to go ladies! I can't wait to hear about how these projects develop in the future.

For more information about The McCormick Foundation New Media Women Entrepreneurs (NMWE), visit their website: newmediawomen.org

Photo via gcoldironjr2003.