APSE results

Except dickheads like notepad feel it's their job to pee on anything while they feel superior.

 

If you work at a bigger with 10 or more sports writers (are there any more of those?) it's pretty gratifying just to have your editor include your story in an entry.

Not like you can just send in your stuff for APSE.

 

OUTING ALERT: Notepad is Jim Calhoun.

 

On the contrary. Journalism was built on breaking stories and captivating readers, not on winning awards.

I have done all of those.
I'll stick to the first two while too many people nowadays think the true measure of a writer is the third.

 

I pray that after you were done captivating your readers you released them unharmed.

 

As everyone knows, the two things are mutually exclusive.

 

I'm not going to lie...I care a lot. I hope I win.

 

Ah yes, notepad is out breaking big news stories ... when he's not here posting.

 

He probably gets his sources to spill their guts with his charm and empathy.

 

After enduring furloughs, layoffs, cutbacks in space and freelance money, a little recognition would be nice. We don't get it from management much, unless we hit budgets or don't complain when we have things taken away. We sure as hell don't get it from our readers who bitch and whine whether we do a good job or not. I'd say 98 percent of the calls I get are to tell us how crappy of a job we did or to complain about our lack of college lacrosse or pee wee hockey coverage.

So if a group of your peers gives you a "Hey, you did a good job", what's wrong with that?

If you're not into contests, fine. If my paper doesn't win anything, I'll still sleep fine tonight because I know I don't do this for awards. But if we get something, it will feel good today. And tomorrow it'll be gone and we'll get back to the grind.

And I did judge last year and it changed how I thought about the contest. The level of "favors" and "working it for your own paper" was miniscule from what I saw. If you don't win it's a lot easier to palate if you think the whole thing is rigged.

 

Is the Magic 8-ball broken?

 

Grabbing a packet from a Cracker Jack box does not count.