The Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award is presented annually by Colby College to a member of the newspaper profession who has contributed to the country's journalistic achievement. The award is named for Elijah Parish Lovejoy, and established in 1952.

Award criteria
The award was established to:
1. Stimulate and honor the kind of achievement in the field of reporting, editing, and interpretive writing that continues the Lovejoy heritage of fearlessness and freedom.
2. Promote a sense of mutual responsibility and cooperative effort between a newspaper world devoted to journalistic freedom and a liberal arts college dedicated to academic freedom.
The recipient is chosen, based on a selection committee's judgement of a journalist's integrity, craftsmanship, character, intelligence, and courage.

Recipients
Year Recipient
2012 Bob Woodward
2011 SorayaSarhaddi Nelson
2010 Alfredo Corchado
2009 Paul Salopek
2008 Anne Hull
2007 John F. Burns
2006 Jerry Mitchell
2005 Cynthia Tucker
2004 Louis "Studs" Terkel
2003 Steve Mills and Maurice Possley
2002 Daniel Pearl
2001 Pat and Tom Gish
2000 Bill Kovach
1999 William Raspberry
1998 Ellen Goodman
1997 David Halberstam
1996 John Seigenthaler
1995 Murray Kempton
1994 Eugene Patterson
1993 Eileen Shanahan
1992 Sydney Schanberg
1991 Robert C. Maynard
1990 David S. Broder
1989 Eugene L Roberts Jr
1988 John Kifner
1987 Paul Simon
1985 Mary McGrory
1984 Thomas Winship
1983 Anthony Lewis
1982 W. E. Chilton III
1981 A. M. Rosenthal
1980 Roger Tatarian
1979 Katherine Fanning
1978 Jack C. Landau, Clayton Kirkpatrick
1977 Donald Bolles
1976 Vermont C. Royster
1975 William Davis Taylor
1974 James Reston
1973 Katharine Graham
1972 Dolph C Simons, Jr
1971 Erwin D. Canham
1969 John S. Knight
1968 Carl Rowan
1967 Edwin Lahey
1966 Otis Chandler
1965 Colbert Augustus McKnight
1964 John Hay Whitney
1963 Louis M. Lyons
1962 Thomas M. Storke
1961 Bernard Kilgore
1960 Ralph McGill
1959 Clark R. Mollenhoff
1958 John N. Heiskell
1957 Buford Boone
1956 Arthur Hays Sulzberger
1955 Charles A. Sprague
1954 James Russell Wiggins
1953 Irving Dilliard
1952 James S. Pope