Don't Panic

It appears that some folks may be panicking needlessly. We're getting calls from newspapers who have heard about flooding at the NCPA offices and the destruction of Editorial Contest entries.

Here is the story...

A. Yes, NCPA offices were flooded due to a sink pipe on the fourth floor of the office building that also houses NCPA. The association's office is on the third floor. It happened on a weekend and tons of water followed the laws of gravity and wrecked some of the individual offices at NCPA.

B. Only one division's entries were located in an office that got soaked. That was Division A and not all entries were damaged.

C. All of the entries had already been entered into our database and processed, so staff was able to tell what entries needed to be replaced.

D. Newspapers with damaged entries were called with the list of what needed to be replaced.

If your newspaper did not get a phone call, your entries were not damaged. So, no need to panic. No need to call the office to check the status of your entries.

Matter of fact, the best way to keep up to date on the contest is still this blog. Just because the entry deadline has passed, doesn't mean this blog is inactive. Stay tuned for more.

Consecutive days vs. Consecutive issues

Here it is folks, the million dollar question!
Anonymous asks:
Hi! I have a question about the feature section design category. If the feature section is weekly, it's obviously not printed on consecutive dates. We have other feature sections that print in between. So would I submit two consecutive, albeit different, sections or the two feature sections that printed a week apart?

Dear Anonymous,
The simple answer is that any two sections that are entered must be on consecutive publication days, not consecutive specific sections.
This has been a hot button issue between the committee that administers the contest and the board of directors for some time now. I understand why some folks think that the consecutive sections that should be submitted would be two of the same section-for example, if you have a food section every Wednesday you might want to enter two food sections in a row. However, the spirit of this category and the reason behind asking for two consecutive dates, is to show your your papers' excellence in all of the feature sections that you publish, not just one.

I hope this answers your question. Let us know if you have any others!

The clock is ticking

Today is October 1. The deadline is October 3. If you can't do the math, you can find a countdown clock on the main Web site at www.ncpress.com.

Remember that your entries must be received or postmarked by Friday. You may download all the forms you need from our main site as well.

Is it one event?

Rick Mercier of the Clayton News-Star has this question for us:

We have had a drawn-out legal battle over a botched election here in Clayton last November. The N.C. Court of Appeals handed down a final opinion in the case on Sept. 16, but there are still lingering legal questions. We have been covering the botched election and legal wrangling (with its myriad twists and turns) all along since last November.
Should this be considered a single event? If so, should we include all 15-20 articles we've written on this in an entry in the general news category? If it's not a single event, how to break our coverage into separate entries? Articles about the election and post-election audit by the elections board in one entry, articles about the case winding through the legal system as another entry?
Advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Under the circumstances you cite, Rick, I'd said it is a single event and qualifies for the General News category. In this case the single event stretched over more than three quarters of the year, but it all pertains to the same specific topic.

The other potential category might be News Enterprise Reporting. But take a look at part of the category description:

One or more stories on the same subject going beyond routine reporting and demonstrating initiative and thoroughness in examining a trend, issue or social problem.

Whether your story would fit here really depends on the work you had to do.

The other part of your question is whether you include all 15-20 articles in your entry. That's a decision you have to make. Here are some factors you might want to consider:

• How long are the articles? Remember that this contest is judged by your peers in other states. How much are they going to want to read before moving on to the next entry in a large stack? Hard to tell, but probably few judges reward weight.
• Are some of the articles mostly repetitive of previous stories? Maybe those could be weeded out.
• Do the articles feed on each other so that the series wouldn't make sense without one article or another?

In the end, how many articles you include is up to you. Good luck and thanks for the question.

General News Question

Here's a question from Molly about news categories:
I was wondering if items in the general news category have to cover an actual event, rather than a subject. I know the definition lists the entry as covering an event so I am wondering what category a general news story that does not cover an event should be submitted under?

Answer: A general news story does indeed have to cover a single event. A news story that does not cover an event, can go (depending of course on the content) into the Feature Writing, News Enterprise or Investigative Reporting categories.

I hope that answers your question Molly, let me know if you need any further clarification.

New Media differences

Jennifer posed this question to the blog:

Hi, I am a little unclear on the difference between the "best use of an interactive feature" and "best multimedia project" categories. Specifically, the interactive feature description mentions "multiple ways for users to interact and participate in the story" -- does that mean participate as in submitting their own comments/photos/information, or would databases and photo galleries (in which users can click around and filter results, but not submit their own information) also fall into that "interactive" category? We have a few sections online that include a number of elements -- multiple stories, photo galleries, videos, a database in one case, a blog in another case. I am just trying to determine where to enter those sections.

Also, if I enter an online section (for interactive or multimedia) that includes multiple print stories and other elements, none of those stories or photos can be entered in other categories, correct? Sorry this is such a long series of questions!

Thanks for the question, Jennifer. These categories are only in their second year, so it’s easy to get confused about them. Let’s see if this explanation will help…

First, notice the difference in wording between the “interactive” category and the “multimedia” category. The first contemplates some part of your Web site (or a subsite) that offers a variety of ways for the user to be involved. That could include databases, comments, photos and much more (perhaps even a game). The category isn’t about a “news story,” but it should involve one topic. Judging here should focus on both the quantity and quality of the interactive features and their effectiveness.

Best Multimedia Project does involve a “news story.” And it is about more than what appears on your Web site. The concept involves how you integrated your coverage of a news event between your printed product and new media. Again, both quantity and quality count here. The bigger variety of media used to tell the story the better. But we’re pretty sure that judges will heavily weigh how good the material used is in making their decisions.

On your last question, you are correct. What you enter in these categories cannot be entered elsewhere. The exception to that would be items entered in the “Special Awards” competitions, such as Public Service, Community Service and the Hugh Morton Award.

Hope this helps.

CDs and 10-parters

Carol sends us these questions concerning the Community Division:

• I have a 10-part series to enter in the Features category. Will that be one entry with all 10 articles within one manila folder?
• Is the CD only for Photo and General Excellence categories or is a CD to accompany each paper's entries?

Carol, let me answer the second question first and then I expect Holly will add on the answer to the first question (but I'm guessing the answer will be it is one entry as long as the feature is all about one topic).

On the CD question... for the Community Division, please submit the CDs for photo entries in categories 9, 10 and 11. We ask for full-page pdfs on a different CD for categories 12, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27.

Then we do want two pdf pages of fronts for your General Excellence entry, plus we ask for one front page from any issue during the contest year. We'll use that random front page for presentation purposes at the awards banquet.

For more details on the CDs, check page 2 of the main contest flyer. You can download your own copy from our Web site, www.ncpress.com.

John