APSE judging thread

Exactly. Debate over, I hope.

 

Some of those guys dress like they're ready to change the oil. Have some pride, fer crissakes -- you are representing your paper at a national gathering.

My problem with the awards isn't so much with the writing categories (although they do not reward consistency), but with the section awards. We've seen far too much copying of gimmicks in the effort to do well in the contest, and the result is a homogenization of sports sections that, frankly, has bored the crap out of me to the point that I no longer delight in spending a bundle every week at a newsstand that stocks out-of-town papers. I think about five years ago there even was some advice in the APSE Bulletin (or was it a seminar at the convention?) on how small papers can do well in the contest, which is plain sick. Contests ought to be an afterthought; we should be focused on attracting readers and not planning our content with the contest in mind. And why would we want to copy another paper's format that already has proved it doesn't attract readers?

 

i don't get the animus toward the awards.
somebody wrote a few weeks ago that the apse was ruining sports sections, crowding out news, making newspapers less competitive, etc.
how can that be? why would apse be self-destructive? doesn't make any sense.
they seem innocent enough to me - rewarding good work.
why do people get worked up about this?

 

I don't understand what the big deal is with people hating APSE and other awards. I know it appears to be in our nature, but damn, don't we bitch and moan about too much anyway - Oscars, Top 25, Grammys, Pulitzers, BASW, etc.? If subjectivity is involved, there's not a perfect system for administering an award. So deal with it, and continue trying to put out the best section you can.

 

As long as those pesky readers keep buying the paper, right??

 

Boy, Frank, I don't remember a single judging session I was ever in where most people didn't wear shorts or jeans and casual clothes, especially if the weather was warmer.

 

It's a judging, not a black-tie affair. You want people to sit around and read stories and sections all day in shirt and tie? That's just dumb.

 

geez, i'd think the nerds doing the judging woulda been the dress-for-success types running rougshod through newsrooms across the land!!

 

I wanted to judge, but it would have been a long walk from the East Coast to California. My department doesn't have two nickels to rub together in its budget right now.

 

Didn't say that. But hoodies and beatup jeans and untucked shirts? There is a difference between casual and slob.

 

My first boss - a guy who covered a big-time MLB beat for years then became a very good sports editor -- always said this about contests:

"Be happy when you win. Be happy for your friends when they win. Don't ever think they make you a better day-to-day journalist than anyone else. The people around you - your co-workers, your readers and your competition - decide that. When you have their respect, you'll know it, and you'll never trade it for any award."

I love the APSEs, but whether I win or lose, I end up thinking about the second part of what he said.