Why enter?

The 2026 Headlinemoney Awards celebrate the best in journalism, editorial excellence, and top-flight communications from the world of financial services media.

Journalists, editors, PRs and experts are invited to showcase their best work from 2025 (calendar year) by submitting entries to us directly.

Enter the 2026 Headlinemoney Awards to:

  • Profile you or your title/company and gain recognition from your peers and the industry
  • Showcase your title/company's excellence
  • Validate your achievements

Read the following pages before you start: entry process, entry FAQs and the entry tips & guidelines below.

Each stage of the awards entry is free. If you have any questions or need more information, please contact Ruth Boateng.

Please note that entries will open on 7 January 2026.

Entry Process

The Awards comprise categories both for individual journalists (Consumer and B2B) and media outlets covering different aspects of the financial marketplace. There are also trophies for individuals and press teams working in financial PR, media relations and communications.

A key aspect of the Awards is that all the winners are decided by their peers following an extensive submission, shortlisting and judging process.

VIEW 2026 CATEGORIES

Submissions

For the 2026 Awards, Headlinemoney invites journalists, editors and PRs to showcase their best work from the calendar year 2025 by submitting entries to us directly. To have any chance of winning you need to enter!

If you entered the 2025 awards you will have an existing account. Please enter the email and password you used last year, or click the 'forgot password' link if you need to reset this. This account is separate from your Headlinemoney.co.uk account.

All entries are free of charge.

Entry deadlines

Please note that for the 2026 awards, entries will not be accepted after the entry deadline due to a limited judging timeframe.

Key Dates

JANUARY/FEBRUARY

Journalism and PR entries open 7 January:

Companies can enter themselves into PR and journalism categories.

PR entries close: Friday 30 Jan
Journalism entries close: Friday 6 February

MARCH

PR Vote & Judging:

PR vote for journalists opens mid-March and closes early April.

A panel of expert judges from across the industry will review all submissions.

JUNE

Awards:

All shortlisted nominees will be invited to attend the awards ceremony, where we will announce the winners on

Tuesday 23 June at the London Hilton on Park Lane.

Entry tips & guidelines

  • Items of work must have appeared in the calendar year 2025.
  • We advise drafting your entry in Word before copying and pasting it into the entry form.
  • You can save your entry in the system to complete later using the 'Save' option at the bottom of the entry form.


    Journalism Awards

    • For each entry, you will be asked to submit a 300-word supporting statement, as well as up to three examples of work. Please note that if you are entering one of the ‘Story of the Year’ categories, only one story is required.
    • You will be asked to upload a relevant high-resolution image with your entry. This will be used on the Awards collateral should your entry be shortlisted:
      • If you are entering an individual or Story of the Year award, please provide a headshot (high-resolution JPEG, as close to 1920 x 1080 pixels, minimum 300dpi as possible)
      • If you are entering a Title of the Year category, please provide a screenshot of your website or a PDF of one front cover.
    • In addition to reviewing your examples of work, judges will be looking for evidence that you were the best in your area in 2025. Make your case in your supporting statement (max. 300 words) to explain why your submission deserves to win. Judges refer extensively to supporting statements during their deliberations.
    • Please ensure you upload a file for each example of your work. Use links only if your submission is in a visual/audio format, and remember to submit login details for any links behind a gateway/paywall. These paywall login details will need to work up until the end of May for judging purposes.


    PR Awards

    • You will be asked to submit both a supporting statement of up to 300 words and a 50-word summary of your entry. The summary will be used on the Awards website during the journalist vote, should your entry be shortlisted. 
    • You have the opportunity to upload a maximum of two PDFs to support your entry, should you wish to do so. This could include, but is not limited to, clippings, data, evidence of your expertise, etc. Please outline the nature of your supporting documents on the entry form, along with any passwords or usernames the judges may need to access any URL links you may have provided. 

    • Please include a relevant image with your entry. This will be used on the Awards collateral should your entry be shortlisted:

      • If you are entering a specialist PR category, Rising Star, or Expert categories, please provide a headshot.
      • If you are entering the Press Team or PR Agency category, please include a relevant team photo or corporate image/logo.
      • If you are entering the Thought Leadership category, please provide a relevant illustration of the campaign being submitted.
    • Images should be supplied as either high-resolution jpegs (as close to 1920x1080 pixels, minimum 300dpi as possible), EPS Illustrator files (logos) or PDFs (campaign illustrations).
    • There are no hard-and-fast rules about what makes a great entry in each category. But bear in mind that it’s the financial press that has the final say in the decision-making. Ultimately, the aim is to impress on the judges your communications expertise when it comes to working with the financial press.

    • Evidence of dedication, professionalism, reputation for efficiency, quality of story/campaign, ability to deploy experts at short notice, and an understanding of a journalist’s particular audience are some of the factors that will doubtless contribute to the final decisions. This is your chance to tell journalists about your media relations strengths and achievements over the past year!

        Entry FAQs

        Hopefully you'll find an answer to your question below. If not, contact Ruth Boateng.


        Who can enter?

        The awards are split into two sections: one for financial journalists and the titles they work for, and the other for PR and communications professionals supporting the financial media sector.

        PR Categories

        Entries are welcomed in our PR categories from financial services communications professionals, press teams and expert commentators.

        Whether you’re doing a great job as an individual, or as part of a team, there’s a category for you to showcase your achievements.

        Please follow the steps below (entries open on 7 January 2026):

        • Visit the Award categories page and select the category/ies that you’d like to enter by clicking the Enter Now button. To enter multiple categories, tick the box in the top right corner, and then click the blue PROCESS button that appears.

        • If you entered the 2025 Awards, you will already have an existing account. Please enter your email and password you used last year, or click the 'forgot password' link if you need to reset this.
          Please note that this is a different account from the one you may have for the Headlinemoney Platform, and the username and password may differ.
        • If you did not enter or book a table in 2025, you will then be asked to create an account to log in to complete your entry.

        • You will then be taken through to a basket page (all entries are free to submit). The category/ies that you have selected will appear under the ‘Awards Nomination’ heading, and you can complete the entry information.

        • You can then ‘Continue’ at the bottom of the page to proceed through the entry basket process.

        • You will receive a confirmation email from the system once your entry has been successfully submitted. If you do not receive a confirmation email within 24 hours, your entry has not been successfully processed. Please log back into your account and check that all mandatory information has been provided. 


        Contact Ruth Boateng with any queries.

        You will be asked to submit both a supporting statement of up to 300 words , as well as a 50-word summary of your entry. This summary will be used on the Awards website during the journalist vote, should your entry be shortlisted.

        You have the opportunity to upload a maximum of two PDFs to support your entry, should you wish to do so. Please outline the nature of your supporting documents on the entry form, along with any passwords or usernames the judges may need to access any URL links you may have provided.

        Please include a relevant image with your entry. For example:

        • If you are entering a specialist PR category, rising star or expert categories, provide a headshot (a high-resolution JPEG, as close to 1920x1080 pixels, minimum 300dpi reference as possible)

        • If you’re entering the press team or PR agency category, include a relevant team photo or corporate image (a high-resolution JPEG, as close to 1920x1080 pixels, minimum 300dpi as possible, or an Illustrator EPS file if supplying a company logo)

        • If you’re entering the thought leadership category, provide a relevant illustration of the campaign that’s being submitted (a PDF or a high-resolution JPEG, as close to 1920x1080 pixels, minimum 300dpi as possible)

        The entry deadline for the PR categories is  Friday 30 January.

        Please note, entries will NOT be accepted after the entry deadline due to a limited judging time frame.

        All categories are FREE to enter.

        Unless stated, the Awards cover the calendar year 2025.

        Yes, but ONLY in the ‘Expert of the Year’ category, where we’re happy to receive entries from third parties making a nomination on an individual’s behalf as well as direct from commentators themselves. (For example, a press officer making a nomination on behalf of an expert from the same company for whom they’ve achieved airtime).

        Entries in each category will be scrutinised by a panel of judges from the financial services media. The judges will compile shortlists for each of the PR categories, and the winners will ultimately be decided by the financial press via an online vote.

        There are no hard-and-fast rules about what makes a great entry in each of these categories. But bear in mind that it’s the financial press that has the final say in the decision-making. Ultimately, the aim is to impress on the judges your communications expertise when it comes to working with the financial press.

        Evidence of dedication, professionalism, reputation for efficiency, quality of story/campaign, ability to deploy experts at short notice, and an understanding of a journalist’s particular audience, are some of the factors that will doubtless contribute to the final decisions.

        This is your chance to tell journalists about your media relations strengths and achievements over the past year!

        The PR and Communications shortlists will be announced in March 2026.

        Journalism Categories

        The Awards comprise categories both for individual journalists (consumer and B2B) as well as media outlets covering different aspects of the financial marketplace.

        Please follow the steps below (entries open on 7  January 2026):

        • Visit the Award categories page and select the category/ies you’d like to enter by clicking the Enter Now button. To enter multiple categories, tick the box in the top right corner, and then click the blue PROCESS button that appears.
        • If you entered the 2025 awards, you will already have an existing account. Please enter your email and password you used last year, or click the 'forgot password' link if you need to reset this.
          Please note that this is a different account from the one you may have for the Headlinemoney platform, and the username and password may differ.
        • If you did not enter in 2025, you will be asked to create an account to log in to complete your entry.
        • You will then be taken through to a basket page (all entries are free to submit). The category/ies you have selected will appear under the ‘Awards Nomination’ heading, and you can complete the entry information.
        • You can then ‘Continue’ at the bottom of the page to proceed through the entry basket process.
        • You will receive a confirmation email from the system once your entry has been successfully submitted. If you do not receive a confirmation email within 24 hours, your entry has not been successfully processed. Please log back into your account and check that all mandatory information has been provided.

        Contact Ruth Boateng with any queries.

        For each entry, you will be asked to submit a 300 word supporting statement , as well as up to three examples of work . Please note that if you are entering one of the ‘Story of the Year’ categories, only one story example is required.

        Please include a relevant image with your entry. For example:

        • If you’re entering an individual or Story of the Year category, please provide a headshot (a high-resolution JPEG, as close to 1920x1080 pixels, minimum 300dpi  as possible)

        The entry deadline for the journalism categories is Friday 6 February 2026.

        Please note, entries will NOT be accepted after the entry deadline due to a limited judging time frame.

        All categories are FREE to enter.

        Items of work must have appeared in the calendar year 2025.

        The process to decide all the category winners is carried out by more than a hundred judges comprising senior financial journalists, editors and PRs drawn from around the UK’s financial media, during an extensive phase of judging in Spring 2026.

        The journalism shortlists will be announced in April 2026.