There is the World Press, which everyone discuses, analyzes, reports and criticize, and then there is the POYi, which seems to leave most og the photosphere, indifferent. But it shouldn't.
The POYi, or Picture of the year International is also a photojournalism competition that sees the best images of the past year compete for the number one spot. The difference with World Press is that it is not as well known. Yet. There are a lot of differences actually.

Founded in 1944 by the prestigious Missouri School of Journalism , it went through a few iteration before becoming, in 1948, what it is today. It is judges every year by a different pool of judges, all from the photo world, and has embraced multimedia entries decades before the World Press. It has much more categories than it's Dutch cousin, so much, in fact, that the winners are not all announced at once but over the course of month of February.

Unlike the WP however, the POYi has a strong legacy of newspaper photography and it shows. The winning images are always strong, to the point and extremely effective. They communicate their message with a punch and it rare to have the need to read the caption to understand what is happening.

Another plus of the POYi is that if the judges see images that didn't make the one , two or third places spot, they can still give them an Award of excellence, allowing for recognition and reconnaissance.
The POYi enjoys photography so much that they have prizes for best editing and best use of images, realizing that sometimes, a great layout can be in integral part of a strong photo essay

Finally, and also unlike the World Press, the POYi tends to be much more USA centric in its choices. Probably because it is less known outside the USA. Nevertheless, the images here are as powerful, if not more, then any other competition.

With 49 categories, with 13 just for editing, there is a lot to see here, and even more to appreciate. It might take you a while to view all the winning images but at the end, you will be really glad you did.

Paul Melcher