EL PAÍS and Amazon announce the second edition of their competition for young journalists in Europe

Participants are asked to write an essay on journalism in the digital age, with the winners traveling to the International Journalism Festival in Perugia (Italy)

The five winning entries will be published in EL PAÍS, La Stampa and DWDL.de and will be published in an ebook available at the Kindle Store

EL PAÍS and Amazon have announced the second edition of their journalism scholarship for students in Europe. This initiative challenges European students aged 18 and 25 to write an essay of up to 1,000 words under the title Journalism in the Digital Age. The winners will be awarded a trip to the International Journalism Festival in Perugia (Italy), held from April 6 to 10. The winning essays will be published in EL PAÍS, La Stampa and DWDL.de and will be published in an ebook available at the Kindle Store. What’s more, Amazon will sponsor an additional place at the Festival for the best entry from a student of the UAM-El País School of Journalism.

The submission period opens today and the deadline for submitting articles is February 29. Essays will be assessed on whether they adequately addressed the theme, on originality, narrative style, innovative ideas and their ability to engage readers. The winners of the 2015 edition can be read here. Students may submit essays for the Amazon-El País Scholarship by using the form available at  www.amazon.es/ijf-scholarship. Further information on the scholarship and the requirements are also available at this link.

"We want to hear from future journalists, find out what they think of the profession, how they see the job, what their dreams are and what ideas they have for the future of media," says Antonio Caño, editor-in-chief of El País. Caño stressed the importance of partnering on the project once again with Amazon: "The experience of the previous edition was illuminating and we want to continue learning. This collaboration between Amazon and EL PAÍS is a clear example of the importance of synergies in today's world."

"We are very pleased to offer this EL PAÍS scholarship for the second year running, enabling students from across Europe to play an active role in the debate, share their ideas about the future of journalism and perhaps even become our next generation of great journalists," says Russ Grandinetti, senior vice president of Kindle. "We are also pleased to support yet another year the International Journalism Festival, a vital forum to develop new ways in which we, as readers, will be able access news, ideas and opinions in the future."

The International Journalism Festival is one of the most important media events in Europe, with dozens of daily sessions and hundreds of speakers. In its 2016 edition, the forum will become a laboratory of ideas in which journalists will be able to exchange views with readers and fellow journalists on the profound changes taking place in the area of news management and will be encouraged to debate the enormous possibilities offered by technology for the circulation of new ideas.