APSE judging thread

You might be the only one.

 

It's called the Associated Press Sports Editors. Let them get their own damn awards.

 

We spend the whole year writing about others winning and losing all year long, documenting other people's triumphs while we are just on the outside of life and looking in (or so it feels a lot of the time).

APSE gives me the opportunity to put myself on the line the same way those athletes do. Even in defeat, it's cathartic. I see nothing wrong with it. As long as I don't become obsessed with it and base my self-worth on the results, as I used to do, I think it's a good thing.

 

i want to thank everyone for helping to soften my objection to the apse's. i still think they suck, mind you. but my perspective is a jaded one, i admit, since the only two papers i've worked for are in the 250,000-plus category. i've been incredibly blessed. i didn't need awards to "climb the ladder." so many of my equally-talented colleagues have found that awards can help their climb. i can't argue that.

so thanks for giving me that perspective, brothers and sisters.

 

Anyone have an idea as to when the next batch of awards will be released?

 

Here's one thing APSE's can do that might not have been mentioned either: soften up the higher-ups. Sure, it's better to be able to show you're raising reader interest because this is a business, and that makes money. But if you want to fly someone out to an event you don't normally cover or do something unusual for a section, some editors and publishers find it easier to trust a writer or an editor who has a few awards hanging on their wall. In an ideal world, you could put together a section that wins over readers and pulls in awards, though.

 

Oh, and by the way, congratulations to all the winners posted above. I've seen some of the work from a lot of the bigger papers, and it's outstanding. And to get recognition in the smaller circulations, I'm sure they have to be putting out some good stuff. Congrats.

 

I like the idea of putting winners up on the APSE site (and here) as they are named. I understand the desire, in the past, to release it all at once. But it kind of had a feel to it like everyone was being tortured just for the sake of being tortured. Accidentally sadistic of the APSE judges.

I see no harm in letting it trickle out.

Plus, in the past, people with SEs at the contest would get the results via phone leakage anyway, while the rest of us schmucks had to sit and wait for the wire to carry it. Didn't feel fair.

 

I hope you're not wearing a hoodie

 

Nah. It would cover up Lynn's famous hair.

 

i bet you look great in your dockers