NSPA Spring Contests: Enter by June 16

Contest entry forms for the 2008 NSPA Newspaper Pacemaker, Broadcast Pacemaker and Individual Awards are in the mail and should arrive in members’ mailboxes any day now. They are also available on our Web site at http://nspa.studentpress.org (look in the right column under Form Central).

There have been several changes to the contests this year, which are detailed below as well as on the entry forms:

• Newspaper Pacemaker: The number and type of issues of your paper to submit for the contest is now the same for all newspapers, regardless of how frequently they are published. Of the five papers now being submitted, there are now two issues of your choice, with the others coming from specific time periods in the fall and spring semesters (see entry form for details). This should help papers be able to submit their strongest work while still demonstrating consistent quality throughout the year. Update: Newspapers which publish fewer than five times per year may submit all issues published during the school year.
• Individual Awards (Story / Picture / Design / Cartooning): First of all, these contests now share a single entry form, with the form on the front and contest rules on the back (page 2 of the PDF), rather than four separate forms. Not only does this save paper, it will also make for fewer forms for contest entrants to keep straight. Remember to submit a separate form for each entry, and send all the entries together in one envelope if possible.

  Secondly, for the Picture of the Year contest, we are accepting only digital images, submitted online using the form at this Web page. Picture of the Year entries will no longer be accepted by mail. With digital photography in widespread use, we hope everyone will find this process more efficient than making prints and mailing them. Visit the link above for further details.

  We have also added new categories to the Picture of the Year contest: the Sports Picture category has been divided into Sports Action (on-field performances) and Sports Reaction (emotional displays by athletes or fans). Junior High/Middle School photographers can compete in their own category this year. Also new is an Environmental Portrait category, which is for posed images of one or more individuals, taken in their natural surroundings to provide insight into their work, interests or personality.

The deadline to enter all of the contests is June 16 (entries must be recieved by that date). There is no entry fee for any of the contests, but publications must have a current NSPA membership to enter. Enter soon!