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| THE BASICS |
| Contest period: Oct. 1, 2009, through Sept. 30, 2010 |
| Entry deadline: Oct. 4, 2010 |
| Contest fee: $7 per entry. The fee is non-refundable. Full payment must accompany your entries or be received by NCPA by the contest deadline or your entries will be disqualified. NCPA will not invoice newspapers for their contest fees. See payment instructions. |
| Dues: Membership dues for your newspaper must be paid by Oct. 1 in order to be eligible to enter the contest |
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| IMPORTANT: Be sure to read the descriptions of the contest categories carefully as some changes have been made. Entries that do not follow the criteria set will be disqualified. Because of the size of the contest, you will not be notified if your entry has been rejected. |
| Make certain you include the date(s) of publication for each entry. The dates must be typed into the "Comments" box when submitting your entries. Failure to do so will lead to disqualification. More |
New categories: |
| Change in circulation categories: This year, Division D is for daily newspapers under 10,000 circulation. Division E includes daily papers with circulation between 10,000 and 35,000. |
| Daily newspapers that fall into the 35,000 and over circulation division may submit a maximum of six (6) entries per newspaper per category that allows multiple entries. |
| Awards to be presented at the 2011 Winter Institute |
| Plagiarism is the act of lifting the words and work of others and representing it as your own. Any entry discovered to contain plagiarized material in any form will be disqualified. Any award will be automatically rescinded if it is later discovered that the original entry contained plagiarized material. |
| Photojournalists have the responsibility to document society and preserve its images as a matter of historical record. Electronic technologies now provide new challenges to the integrity of photographic images. The guidelines for fair and accurate reporting should be the criteria followed in judging what can be done electronically to a photograph. Images may not be digitally altered beyond traditional cropping, lightening, darkening and color balancing. Any photograph that goes beyond traditional methods should be entered as a photo illustration and should be labeled accordingly. |
| Want to see who won last year? Check out the 2009 contest winners site. |
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Any North Carolina newspaper that is a member of the North Carolina Press Association and has paid its 2010-2011 annual dues by Oct. 1, 2010, may enter this contest. Entries must be submitted through the newspaper, not by individuals.
A story, photograph or any entry that was published in more than one newspaper may be entered only one time, and that must be in the largest circulation category in which the entry appeared. Awards for entries that violate this rule will be disqualified. All entries become the property of NCPA and may be used for promotional, display and news purposes. |
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The divisions in this contest are determined by the newspapers’ frequency and circulation. Communities are non-daily newspapers, less than five days a week. Specialty Publications are members whose primary product is business or leisure publications or those publications whose content is directed to a specific audience. Note: In all cases, for all divisions, NCPA will use the circulation figures listed in the 2010 NCPA Newspaper Directory to verify your newspaper’s circulation. YOUR DIVISION should already be automatically in the Better Newspaper Contest system. If your newspaper is listed in the wrong division alert Holly Johnson before uploading any entries. |
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Community Newspapers will be judged in three circulation divisions: A) Under 3,500 To calculate the circulation division of your newspaper, multiply the number of days per week your newspaper is published by the total circulation number. For example, if you publish three times per week and your circulation per day is 7,000, your total circulation would be 21,000 and your circulation division would be “Over 10,000.” |
Daily Newspapers will be judged in three circulation divisions: D) Under 10,000 Your Audited circulation figure is the number as appears in the 2010 NCPA Newspaper directory and was used in determining which circulation division your newspaper is in. |
Specialty Publications will be judged in the same circulation divisions along with the community newspapers, except for the categories of General Excellence, Appearance and Design and Special Section. These categories will be judged against other specialty publications only. Specialty publications should use the same formula as stated at left for community newspapers in calculating your circulation division. |
Papers that switched from Daily to Community during the contest year have two options for entering:
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WHAT IF I WORKED FOR MORE THAN ONE NEWSPAPER? You may enter work from more than one newspaper (community, daily or both), but you still have to obey the maximum entry rules for the category. In case of doubt, entries from the current employer will take precedence. (Reminder: entries are submitted by the newspapers, not by individuals. See above.) |
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MAY WE ENTER STORIES WITH MULTIPLE BYLINES? A person’s name may appear only once as an entrant for any category in which only one entry per person is allowed. If the entered story is “By Joe Brown and Joan Green,” then neither Brown nor Green can enter anything else in that category, whether or not they did the additional story by themselves or with anyone else.
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DO I NEED TO CROSS OUT MY BYLINES OR HEADLINES? No. |
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HOW MANY TIMES MAY I ENTER IN EACH CATEGORY? Please see the list of categories for your division, as some categories allow one entry per person and some allow two per person. Make sure you follow these rules or your entries will be disqualified. |
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CAN THE SAME STORY OR PHOTO BE ENTERED IN MORE THAN ONE CATEGORY? Here’s the rule: You can enter a story, photograph, etc., in one category -- no more than that except as outlined below. Stories, photos, etc., entered in the normal categories may also be part of entries in the special categories, namely: Hugh Morton Photographer of the Year, Media and the Law Award, Duke/Green-Rossiter Award, Duke Divinity Award, Weathers Freedom of Information Award, Public Service Award and Community Service Award. |
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For entries where several articles are entered, be sure to include all publication dates. Any entry forms not filled out in their entirety (including the date) will result in automatic disqualification. Entries with incorrect dates listed will be disqualified, so double check what you've typed. Oh, and as for the question asked, a dateline is not required on the PDF for anything that is not a full page. |
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CAN A SERIES THAT WAS RE-PACKAGED INTO A STAND-ALONE PRODUCT BE SUBMITTED? If a series that ran in the newspaper is re-packaged into a stand-alone product (such as a tab or booklet), the stand-alone product can be submitted only if it ran in the general run of the newspaper. |
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We realize that your entry may no longer be active on your site due to the length of the contest period. However, judges must have access to the material on the Internet. Screen captures or CDs containing the entry will not be judged. (See category descriptions on the exception to this in the Online Breaking News contest.) You should provide a direct URL for judges to use and a user name and password if required. If the judges cannot access or find your entry, it will be disqualified. |
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HOW DO WE PREPARE OUR PAYMENT?
Step Two: Calculate your payment. It's $7 per entry. Step Three: Send one copy of the printed list with your payment and any mailed-in entries (see shipping instructions below). |
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MAY WE USE A CREDIT CARD TO PAY FOR OUR ENTRIES? Yes. But quite honestly, we prefer receiving checks. If you do want to use a credit card, please download and complete the form and send it along with your mail-only entries and/or list of entries. |
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WHAT CATEGORIES REQUIRE PHYSICAL COPIES TO BE MAILED INSTEAD OF UPLOADED?
HOWEVER, the information must be entered into the online system with a label printed out and stapled to the entry. Entries received at our office that are not in the system's database will be disqualified. Information on the requirements for each category are on the website as well as in the contest categories list that you can download by clicking on the appropriate link at the top of this page. |
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HOW DO WE SEND THE MAIL-ONLY ENTRIES?
You may hand deliver entries to NCPA Headquarters, 5171 Glenwood Ave., Suite 364, Raleigh, N.C. 27612, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. only. Please call in advance to make sure we’re on hand to receive your entries. Hand-delivered entries will be accepted up to and including the deadline of Monday, Oct. 4, 2010. Directions are available from NCPA’s website, www.ncpress.com. |
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WHAT IS MY PASSWORD? WHAT IF I FORGET MY PASSWORD? Your initial password in the Better Newspaper Contest website is "bnc." When you log in for the first time you will be prompted to change your password. If you should forget your password, you'll need to send a request via the Better Newspaper Contest website. When you first signed on you were also asked to provide a contact name and e-mail address. Whatever address you entered will be the address that BNC will use to send the password information. |
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WHERE DO WE GO TO GET QUESTIONS ANSWERED?
Second, go to our blog. http://bloggingonthecontest.blogspot.com. Someone else may have already asked your question and gotten an answer. If you, add a comment to one of the existing posts and we'll respond with a new post. If you still can't find an answer, contact Holly Johnson at (919) 789-2093 or holly@ncpress.com. You may also direct questions to john@ncpress.com. |
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A contestant must have been, at the time the entry was written, a full-time or regular part-time employee or exclusive contributor to the newspaper (i.e. can’t appear in more than one newspaper). 
In categories that allow two entries per person, an individual’s name may appear only twice.
Each entry, regardless of full pages or cropped clippings, must have a date(s) of publication entered into the system! After uploading your entry, when the text box titled "Comments" appears (should be just above the fields for typing in the names of those getting credit for the entry), type in the date(s) of publication in that Comment box. 
Step One: Print out the "Manage Your Entries" page on the Better Newspaper Contest website. This will list all of your entries. Remember, even those categories mailed in must be in the website's database. If it's not in the database, it won't be judged. 
Any category that requires a full section is not uploaded to the Better Newspaper Contest website. 
You may use the U.S. Postal Service, UPS, FedEx or any other relialbe service you pay to deliver your entries -- as long as it is postmarked no later than Monday, Oct. 4, 2010.