Jan. 5, 2010

FSNE Journalism Contest

• Categories
• Contest rules
• Submission of photo and graphic entries
• Entry form

Florida Editors:

It’s time again to prepare entries for the annual Florida Society of News Editors contest -- the premier journalism contest in Florida and a showcase for your remarkable work.

For the first time, FSNE is encouraging entries from journalists who are not affiliated with traditional news organizations. Four new categories are open to bloggers and community web-only publications in photography, blogging, news video and homepage design.

Deadline for all entries: Friday, Feb. 19, 2010.

Winners: Announced at the June convention in Sarasota.

What’s New This Year:

Entry fees: Recognizing the pressures we all face, the contest fees are a flat $30 for each entry regardless of division.

Circulation Divisions: Division A, more than 125,000 daily; Division B, 40,000 to 125,000; and Division C, under 40,000.

Category Changes: We’ve added seven new online categories, including best breaking-news slideshow, non-deadline video package and use of social media in a breaking-new story. Four categories are open to community bloggers and journalists not affiliated with a news organization.

To Enter: For writing categories, please submit an original and three copies. For photos and design, entries will be judged online again this year to eliminate expenses of making prints and preserving tearsheets. Each paper will submit its photos and PDFs of pages to a commercial server. Naming the files correctly is critical. For online categories, please make sure all URL’s are active. Full details will be posted soon on the FSNE.org web site.

What’s Unchanged This Year:

Payments: Still accepted by credit card. We strongly encourage use of Visa, MasterCard or Discover, because the card fees are lower than American Express. (AMEX will be accepted, however.) We also request a single charge to cover all entries, rather than multiple transactions, again to limit the card fees charged to FSNE.

Download Credit Card payment form in .doc format
Download Credit Card payment form in .pdf format

Payment by check is still available for those who prefer.

Gold Medal: Online components, including material not published in print, may be included again this year as supplemental material for judges to consider in the four main categories of Daily Deadline, Features, Investigative and Explanatory.

If you have any questions, email the contest committee, below. 

Enter early, enter often! Good luck to everyone!

Cory Lancaster, Managing Editor,
Daytona Beach News-Journal, cory.lancaster@news-jrnl.com 

Patty Cox, Managing Editor/Presentation,
St. Petersburg Times, pcox@sptimes.com

Chris Porter, Editor,
Sun Newspapers, Charlotte Harbor, porter@sun-herald.com 

Jim Baltzelle, Chief of Bureau,
Associated Press, jbaltzelle@ap.org

Rafael Palacio, Editor,
El Sentinel (Orlando), Rpalacio@orlandosentinel.com