APSE judging thread

Yeah, that would be a great idea.

Fail to mention someone's freshman son who scored a touchdown when his team was already ahead 58-7 in the fourth quarter? Terrible story. Out of consideration.

Story about State U boosters paying recruits under the table that made national news and got State U on probation? Terrible story. You should be supporting the school, not tearing it down. Out of consideration.

Dig up coach's unseemly past, which included arrests for solicitation and drug use? Who do you think you are? Bob Woodward? This is sports writing. You should be writing positive stories and accepting the access that Coach Whoremonger grants you and like it. Out of consideration.

Yeah. Let's have the readers judge. That would work out tremendously.

 

i HATE everything the apse awards stand for. the best newspapermen i know have never won one. few have even entered anything in one.

apologies to those who live and die with them, but they're not representative of what being a good newspaperman means. and that's all i've ever cared about.

 

Don't worry, shockey. Maybe you'll get yours this year.

 

Seriously, I think the attitude of "I hate the APSE awards, they are ruining papers" is stupid.

Sure, if you are cooking up sections or designing your paper with the primary intention of winning an APSE awards, your priorities are screwed.

But they have awards for column writing, game stories, news stories, features in addition to enterprise and investigative.

So what's so bad about winning for your columns or game stories or news stories?

 

sorry to disappoint, ace. i've NEVER been entered. hasn't seemed to negatively affect my career. imagine that, boys and girls?

as for what's so bad about being "rewarded," well, i suppose nothing -- if that's the kind of positive reinforcement you need. me? i find it all so silly. i've never understood that competitive side of the biz. never floated my boat. all the reinforcement i've ever needed came from knowing those i've competed with in my market felt trepidation every morning they opened my paper, fearing i had something juicy that they didn't.

but that's just me.

 

Yo, Shockey, we're kindred veteran brothers, but I know some EXCELLENT newspapermen -- in your view, too, I would think -- who have won them. Plus, "Few have even entered anything in one" kind of torpedos your initial implication, that great newspaper people are passed over because APSE doesn't honor their kind of excellence.

There are certainly plenty of people in the biz who don't believe in contests, APSE in particular, but winning one or not winning one doesn't mean you're in one classification of news person or another.

 

sorry, sf. i don't understand your post. where do we disagree?

i wasn't disparaging anyone who's won. i'm disparaging, i suppose, the entire process of officially "rating" sections and stories and columns. especially in an industry in which not everything is entered. it should be, "best among those submitted." besides, who but those in the industry gives a darn?

i just find the entire process silly. not saying i'm right. just that it doesn't feel right. never has.

 

Well, I feel good for the writers who win. I don't really get all that excited about the section.

 

OK, maybe it's just perception. But "the best newspapermen i know have never won one" somehow implies there's a class of writers or whatever who are above such things. And "some of the best newspapermen I know" HAVE won one, starting with Murray and going from there.

You're right, you can't win if you don't enter. On the other hand, a person can't complain about never having won if they don't enter, either (not saying that's you, by the way).

Hey, some people have never liked the APSE, and that's cool. You don't enter, and don't worry about it, that's fine. On the other hand, for right or wrong, winning APSE has changed lives. And not to be immodest -- because hell, it was exactly 30 years ago, not exactly current events -- but I know, because I was one person it did that for, big time.

 

masel tov, sf.i'm glad it had such a positive effect for you.

for me, they've never impacted on my perception of anyone one iota.

 

And the more experienced you are, the more true that is.

But for young people trying to move up in the biz, they can be a life-altering event.