The UIL sponsors four journalism contests - news writing, feature writing, editorial writing and headline writing. Students compete at the district level, and then the top three places advance to regionals. From regionals, the top three places advance to state competition. The UIL journalism program has seen increased participation in recent years. Many contests winners have gone on to excel as professional journalists.
The UIL offers additional journalism contests through its scholastic press organization, Interscholastic League Press Conference. ILPC offers its members yearbook, newspaper (both print and web-based), broadcast and documentary competitions. ILPC also sponsors an annual two-day spring convention and a four-day intensive summer workshop. Both are held at the University of Texas at Austin.