APSE results

Second that, Puppet...wouldn't it have taken the large-category section judges far less time just to name the couple of papers that ranked sub-top 20??

 

No worries.

 

Our congrats also to David Ubben, who we dubbed "The Microwave" when he was a high school freelancer for us. Kid has a tremendous future ahead of him. In what, I'm not sure considering the state of our business.

 

I don't know David, but I'll add some congrats to anyone who came through the Missourian.

 

Does this mean last year's winners will ever be posted? Ever?

This was never done. They should have whatever of last year's winners they are going to get. For goodness sake, get them up. Then this year's winners (by April 1).

Somehow, I am not filled with confidence that this will be done by April 1. A shame, because we would all love to read the winners. And that includes last year's, too.

 

What you quoted is not about posting the stories. It's about the rankings of this year's 1 through 5 and honorable mentions.

However, I agree with you that the winning stories from last year really ought to be posted and should have been a long time ago.

 

Every single year is a complete patchwork. Around the beginning of the decade, it's like they just stopped trying to get the stories up there. And you can learn a ton from those stories - they way they're written, reported and so forth. Posting the stories can only serve as a great instructional tool for young - and older - journalists. Check out the Pulitzer Prize site. Not to compare the APSEs to the Pulitzers, but we could learn something about professional presentation of award-winners from that site.

The APSEs should be about honoring the work, not just the writers. A list of names just doesn't cut it for me. Get the stories up.

 

But that would require work, wouldn't it? Makes me wonder with what, eight board members?

I don't understand it either.

 

I have a prediction: APSE will lose 30 percent of its membership next year.

 

A few thoughts:

1. What sections were awful in the 100-250 category? Who got left out?

2. Allegations of bias are mostly ridiculous. On the other hand, the guy who ran the contest could have done a much better job of choosing who judged what.

3. AJC didn't make top 10? Why is that a shocker? They couldn't even decide all year if they had a sports editor and they laid off or bought out a huge chunk of the staff.

4. Attendance at the summer convention in Pittsburgh will certainly be very low. Attendance at Salt Lake City in 2010 will be ridiculous. That is assuming APSE still exists in the same form at that point.