The newspapers I work for are members of the Nebraska Press Association. Most of the time that doesn't mean much, but this time of year, it does. This time of year, we're frantically searching last year's editions, looking for our best stuff to enter in the annual Better Newspaper Contest.
It can be encouraging to look back and remember the good stuff we've done. Those are the stories and photos we're hunting for to enter. Every once in a while I'll come across something I wrote, read it over again and think it's actually pretty good. I'm always surprised by that. I don't know why. I know I'm a decent writer. I should be after how many years of practice?
Some categories are hard to narrow down. We're limited in the number of stories and photos we can enter in a given division, and sometimes it's hard to choose. Other times, we're hunting for stuff to fill a category. And some categories we just don't have anything for.
Once we've found our entries, we have to submit them. That's where the deadline and frantic atmosphere come in. We're newspaper people - we operate on deadlines. If the deadline isn't looming, we have plenty of time to finish whatever we're working on. The deadline this year is Jan. 31. See what I mean? Plenty of time.
After everyone across the state has entered their best stuff, another state's press association judges them. Then in April, at our annual convention, we find out which entries they thought were the best. Papers are separated into divisions based on circulation, so a paper like Friend isn't competing against a paper like Seward. I don't always agree with the judges' decisions, but they are final.
Whatever happens in the contest, this year's search for entries has been a good reminder of where we've been this year. And it's given me a bit more incentive to improve what I do.
No comments:
Post a Comment