ANN ARBOR— Three leading digital journalists have become judges of the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists, the largest all-media, general reporting prizes in the U.S.

Kara Swisher, co-CEO of Revere Digital and co-executive editor of Re/code, joined the panel of national judges. Formerly, she co-hosted D: All Things Digital, The Wall Street Journal’s online conferences.

Evan Smith and Chris Davis joined the Livingston program as part of the regional judging group that reduces hundreds of entrants to a manageable number of finalists. Smith is the co-founder, editor-in-chief and CEO of The Texas Tribune, a successful nonprofit news start-up. Davis is managing editor for data and investigations at the Tampa Bay Times, Florida’s largest daily.

Widely known as the Pulitzer Prize for the young, the Livingston Awards are administered at the University of Michigan with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The awards specialize in identifying major talent at an early age and presenting it to an audience of leading media figures at a large awards lunch in New York. Past recipients include Thomas Friedman, Christiane Amanpour, Michele Norris, David Isay, Ira Glass, Steve Coll, Rick Atkinson and David Remnick.

In 2012, the prizes began an outreach to new media, resulting in increases of 85 percent in digital entries, 50 percent overall.

In addition to Swisher, the national judging panel includes: Amanpour of CNN and ABC News; Ken Auletta, media and communications writer, The New Yorker; Dean Baquet, executive editor, The New York Times; Ellen Goodman, author and co-founder and director of The Conversation Project; John Harris, editor-in-chief, POLITICO; Clarence Page, syndicated columnist; and Anna Quindlen, author.

In addition to Smith and Davis, the regional judging panel includes: David Greene, host, Morning Edition, NPR; Shirley Leung, columnist, The Boston Globe; Raney Aronson-Rath, deputy executive producer, Frontline, PBS; Amy Silverman, managing editor, Phoenix New Times; and Debra Adams Simmons, VP of News Development, Advance Local.

About the Livingston Awards
The Livingston Awards at the University of Michigan honor outstanding achievement by journalists under the age of 35 in local, national and international reporting with prizes of $10,000. As the largest all-media, general reporting prize in American journalism, the Livingston Awards are also unique in judging print, broadcast and online entries against one another.

By recognizing the best young talent early in their careers, the Livingston Awards support the work of young journalists, create role models for the next generation of news consumers and advance excellence in journalism. For more, visit Livawards.org.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.