Every year newspapers across Nebraska go through their previous year's editions, searching for their best pictures, stories and overall best papers to enter in the Better Newspaper Contest, conducted through the Nebraska Press Association. We're not the only state to do this - I know because I've judged contests for Texas and Missouri before.
Anyway, we usually end up waiting until the last minute to get everything together. I mean, why not wait until zero hour? We operate on deadlines as a matter of course, so why should this be any different?
Our annual convention falls in April, and at the concluding banquet, we learn who won what. Our newspaper group, which includes the Seward County Independent, the Milford Times, the Friend Sentinel and the Wilber Republican, did really well this year, winning 49 different awards. I'm most proud of two of them - second place in Class A General Excellence for the Sentinel and second place in the Class D sweepstakes for the Independent.
General Excellence is the category that looks at the entire paper - the ads, the stories, the photos and how it's put together. That's the category you want to do well in. We've worked very hard to make the Sentinel a great paper, and this award says we're on the right track.
The sweepstakes is based on how many awards (first, second or third) a paper won. The more awards, the higher your score in the sweepstakes division. Newspapers are divided based on circulation, so Class A includes papers with the smallest circulation numbers, and Class D papers have the biggest circulations. The SCI brought home 19 awards overall, which is the most I think we've ever won. We did exceptionally well in the advertising categories, which is no surprise. Our graphics department, which designs and builds the ads, is amazing. And we picked up some awards on the editorial side, as well, which is pretty gratifying.
Now I have to brag a bit. I won two third places for sports stories I wrote. The one in Class A (the Sentinel) was about a golfer who won the Nebraska Amateur tournament. The one in Class D (the Independent) was about a young man from Utica who competed in a national free throw shooting contest.
The sports pages for the Sentinel and the Independent also won awards - third for Friend and second for the SCI. One of the judge's comments for the SCI pages said that they were the most professional looking of all the entries. See, I do know what I'm doing. And, according to that judge, I'm pretty good.
I was a little disappointed that we didn't win more editorial awards. Of course I am. That's my department. I felt like we entered some very strong work, but evidently, the judge felt that other stories and photos were better. (FYI, each category is judged by one person. There's no checklist of things to look for or "grading system." It's just that person's opinion. So if they're really into disaster and tragedy, those are the entries that win. If they're more into the sappy, overly emotional stories, those will win. It's pretty subjective.)
So we work to improve, getting better in our story construction, photo selection and layout skills. I'd love to have all of our papers winning General Excellence and vying for the sweepstakes awards. I know it's a lofty goal, but I believe it's reachable. Go us!
