tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30313893660576843112024-03-14T03:43:00.051-04:00Blogging on the ContestThis is the place to be for discussion of the 2011 NCPA News, Editorial & Photojournalism Contest. Ask questions, make comments and maybe even learn from others' experience with the contest.The Seekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04486849698706701533noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3031389366057684311.post-73340494392874005792012-08-31T18:50:00.001-04:002012-08-31T18:51:13.441-04:00Authorized Entrants<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvgUO9acQ9WejiAbYTSNIfzm_JzSrtE8qRvWeT0CdXjmoVz_RjUavaTrU2w1f0Di7N1dfd49KPePKscihb-beqEUXScaSQuo07zrBIYO02lVztwhAJECgbl5QKu5RC2vOK8RWamvmvCQ/s1600/frustrate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvgUO9acQ9WejiAbYTSNIfzm_JzSrtE8qRvWeT0CdXjmoVz_RjUavaTrU2w1f0Di7N1dfd49KPePKscihb-beqEUXScaSQuo07zrBIYO02lVztwhAJECgbl5QKu5RC2vOK8RWamvmvCQ/s1600/frustrate.jpg" /></a></div>
One of the new features of the contest system is the ability to set up additional members of your staff with their own log-ins and passwords. These are called Authorized Entrants. The main account for each newspaper is called the Contestant Manager. That account has total control of the newspaper's entries.<br />
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Authorized Entrants are set up through the Contestant Manager. These folks are able to upload entries and manage those entries. However, an Authorized Entrant cannot manage or see the entries posted by anyone on the staff who posted under a different account.<br />
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Consequently, don't panic if your are an Authorized Entrant and you try to go to the Manage Entries and there's nothing there from other staff members. Only the Contestant Manager account can view it all.The Seekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04486849698706701533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3031389366057684311.post-6888175974217371892012-08-22T13:10:00.001-04:002012-08-22T13:10:36.464-04:002012 Contest begins!!!Yes, it's that time of year again. The NCPA News, Editorial & Photojournalism Contest is upon us. We have resumed posting here on the Blogging on the Contest site with updates on the contest and answers to questions posed by our members. If you would like to ask a question, post a comment as a reply to this post. All posts are moderated, so be patient and there will be a response.<br />
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Remember to review the appropriate contest packet for your newspaper. All the rules and information about the contest may be found in those pages. Links to those packets can be found in the right-hand rail of this blog.<br />
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Good luck to one and all!The Seekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04486849698706701533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3031389366057684311.post-16845764968634645842011-09-29T14:58:00.000-04:002011-09-29T14:58:03.330-04:00Story from Community Coverage entryTwo questions from a contest rookie popped up today:<br />
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<blockquote>A few questions from a contest newbie!<br />
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Let's say I want to enter two issues from May in the Best Community Coverage category, but there's a story in one of the issues that's part of a series I wanted to enter for the Investigative Reporting category. Can I enter the entire issue and use the story for a different category, too, or do I have to choose one over the other? Is it the same for all of the categories requiring entire issues?<br />
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Secondly, when creating cropped clips for submitting individual stories, do I have to remove photos that accompanied the story so that the clips are text only?<br />
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Thanks for the help.</blockquote><br />
Welcome to the contest, newbie! On the first question, you may enter the story in the Investigative Reporting category even it is included in the issue of the paper you want to submit in Best Community Coverage. The Community Coverage category is concerned with entire editions involving all aspects of local coverage, not with specific stories. What you can't do is enter a story into two writing categories (such as investigative reporting and general news reporting).<br />
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It is not necessary to crop out the photos, headlines or graphics when we require cropped clips.<br />
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Good luck!The Seekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04486849698706701533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3031389366057684311.post-26719441612796732602010-10-04T09:52:00.000-04:002010-10-04T09:52:27.200-04:00Label, label, labelRemember that old commercial for Libby's? "When it says Libby's, Libby's, Libby's on the label, label, label." OK, well that is an old one.<br />
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Anyway, we received this question...<br />
<blockquote>When entering entries into the Better Newspaper Contest site, the label page says "This Page is Your Official Entry Form. Print and Submit this label with payment."<br />
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Do we print out one of those for every entry including online? Or do we just submit the Manage Entries list for online entries? <br />
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I understand how the labels work for mailed-in entries, but that label form is so bossy and insistent that I'm afraid I need to send one for every online entry too. </blockquote>The only labels you need to print for the contest is for mailed-in entries. You certainly could print out the others for your own records, but it's not necessary. <br />
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The Manage Entries list is what is required to be sent with your payment. Don't be intimidated by the "bossy and insistent" form. It's only a computer, after all.The Seekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04486849698706701533noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3031389366057684311.post-67053491636031245582010-10-01T16:20:00.001-04:002010-10-01T16:30:30.720-04:00Slow to uploadQ: We're having trouble uploading. We go through the steps, it starts uploading and then stops midway. Any tips?<br />
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A: Here's a few we might offer that are good for anything you might want to upload to any site:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisyLleGfqAuS1vZyhWiBEsS5NKwM8yyUN4fGQpMG5qvq-tQWcFkDCPhrQrtlpPyUlqT_1U0lo6QlQLnoH1xMerQL62Ag1i69v26wPOvat476AdzUDwKXa-NijFKhthDwzmfbsmTztjTg/s1600/network.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisyLleGfqAuS1vZyhWiBEsS5NKwM8yyUN4fGQpMG5qvq-tQWcFkDCPhrQrtlpPyUlqT_1U0lo6QlQLnoH1xMerQL62Ag1i69v26wPOvat476AdzUDwKXa-NijFKhthDwzmfbsmTztjTg/s1600/network.jpg" /></a></div>1. Check your file size. The smaller the size the faster and more reliable the transfer. Get the file size of your PDFs down. The quickest way to do that is printing it to Adobe Distiller.<br />
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2. Find out the peak load time for your newspaper's computer network. If everyone in your building is bogging down the network at a particular time of day, avoid uploading files during that time. You might be amazed at how many other departments in your newspaper are using the Internet and moving large files. It's not just the newsroom. One time period to be aware of is when the business office is printing up bills or sending financial files out. You might be surprised how much bandwidth and computing power they consume.<br />
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3. Check with your IT or computer people. They might have an idea for you about a good time during the day to send files.<br />
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4. Avoid heavy use times for the Internet, particularly around the 9-ish hour when people get to work, around lunch time and shortly before 5 p.m. Those seem to be prime time for workers to get on the Internet to check e-mail, watch videos...<br />
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Hope these tips help.The Seekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04486849698706701533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3031389366057684311.post-52903579939236809592010-09-24T10:23:00.001-04:002011-08-06T23:06:30.579-04:00Questions, questions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLAX2OAzTpclWIgWilIS36F15oXg0azVQUflT6FiqKP95EWqj-N_FlRolGnFCotUFFvBpnvy8wQmzs8UFg3cb58u-ye3Oll6kNEDWkeV5DjSenlK2pyqG8C-M4K5EoKYoAUJSalt2ZwQ/s1600/question.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLAX2OAzTpclWIgWilIS36F15oXg0azVQUflT6FiqKP95EWqj-N_FlRolGnFCotUFFvBpnvy8wQmzs8UFg3cb58u-ye3Oll6kNEDWkeV5DjSenlK2pyqG8C-M4K5EoKYoAUJSalt2ZwQ/s1600/question.jpg" /></a></div>A variety of questions have been pouring into Contest Central. Here are a few of them:<br />
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Q: In a full-section category such as Sports Coverage, if one of the selected day’s paper had related stories on 1A, can the 1A material be included?<br />
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A: No. Full-section categories judge only the sections involved, not material outside of the section.<br />
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Q: We have a quick press run, so by the time we discover a typo or something that needs corrected, it’s too late for the printed product. However, we are able to correct what we put online. Can we submit the stories as posted online instead of what was printed in the paper?<br />
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A: No. Entries must be as they appeared in print.<br />
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Q: Can two papers enter a story as a joint entry?<br />
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A: No. Only one paper may submit and receive the credit for the story.<a href="http://www.ncpress.com/editcontestinfo/generalrules.html#2"> </a>The Seekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04486849698706701533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3031389366057684311.post-68026583734885745222010-09-01T14:13:00.001-04:002011-08-06T23:13:12.668-04:00Too many pages?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfOXe_a3QySX4UWD0jfpAtd3MLCfNcBKGoHLqFk9nOuvkHjKgUGjp9N4HQPfPTnWaKusvV1xkrjgNK2atgRFZn782Rj-fDB-T39wscV7nwcw3q4RZU1y_dqB676lMHToOnBlZqe4eFPQ/s1600/pages.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfOXe_a3QySX4UWD0jfpAtd3MLCfNcBKGoHLqFk9nOuvkHjKgUGjp9N4HQPfPTnWaKusvV1xkrjgNK2atgRFZn782Rj-fDB-T39wscV7nwcw3q4RZU1y_dqB676lMHToOnBlZqe4eFPQ/s200/pages.jpg" width="196" /></a></div>As some of you may have noticed already, there is a limit on the number of documents you can upload to the Better Newspaper Contest website. Jen writes to us…<br />
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<blockquote>I am trying to upload a story in the News Feature category that was written as a two-day series. There are a total of 6 pages that will need to be uploaded. I have two questions:<br />
1) The site says that I've reached my upload limit at 3 pages, but the series has 6 pages.<br />
2) Since this is a two-day series with a separate headline for each day, how do I submit it as a single entry? </blockquote><br />
Jen, good questions. For entries that have multiple pages, such as a series, you’ll want to combine the PDF documents using Adobe Acrobat. Someone at your newspaper is undoubtedly an expert using the software, so do take advantage of that resource. The steps are also included in the contest book.<br />
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As for the headline issue, with this being a series you could put one descriptive headline that covers the entire series (a preferable option) or type in several headlines separated by semi-colons (not preferred unless it’s for a column, editorial or criticism entry).<br />
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Hope this helps and thanks for the question.The Seekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04486849698706701533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3031389366057684311.post-20931848052036095152010-08-26T20:30:00.000-04:002010-08-26T20:30:38.417-04:00News enterprise vs. investigative<b>I always have trouble telling whether a story (or short series) involving a lot of legwork and records requests belongs in the investigative category or the enterprise category. Is there any clear cut way to tell the difference? </b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOw1cNOMdw-58hZpqMa39Fdgcc5Xmr15mJm9xYlIXv-oxfwEe9ZAZWpj0ypmdhnPxFFBKms5E4iMmoVSGc7FJYOjgAhA6w3HxoALCl8DhYk955YQKQ-GMO1T0XN0oEAIlJRcf4Ij7DXQ/s1600/coinflip.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOw1cNOMdw-58hZpqMa39Fdgcc5Xmr15mJm9xYlIXv-oxfwEe9ZAZWpj0ypmdhnPxFFBKms5E4iMmoVSGc7FJYOjgAhA6w3HxoALCl8DhYk955YQKQ-GMO1T0XN0oEAIlJRcf4Ij7DXQ/s320/coinflip.jpg" /></a></div>Remember the Supreme Court justice that famously said of pornography that he knew it when he saw it? Unfortunately the answer to your question may be closer to that than any clear cut definition.<br />
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While reasonable people may disagree on this topic, we'll give the question a shot. Both News Enterprise Reporting and Investigative Reporting involve beyond the normal level of journalism you'd do for a daily story.<br />
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We'd regard Investigative Reporting as being about uncovering a problem, illegal activity, pattern of abuse or something in that realm.<br />
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News Enterprise Reporting might involve the same level of work, but more in the way of trying to break down or explain some issue or trend. You're not trying to right a wrong, you're attempting to thoroughly illuminate an issue for your readers.<br />
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One big difference between the two involves the submission of a letter for Investigative Reporting showing what impact the stories had on the community or how the reporting lead to a resolution of the problem. The description for Investigative Reporting states, "evidence of probable impact will weigh heavily in the judging."<br />
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Such a letter is not required or even encouraged for News Enterprise. Impact is not judged in News Enterprise. That's an important distinction.The Seekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04486849698706701533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3031389366057684311.post-16434907264994935642010-08-24T15:27:00.002-04:002011-08-06T23:22:44.193-04:00All at once?<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Should all entries from a contestant be entered at one time or does it matter? -- Paulette</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">One of the great things about this system is that up until the deadline you have full control of your entries. Upload a couple today and some more in a week or so. Decide against one of the entries you've already uploaded? Simply "disable" that entry. So the short answer to your question is that entries do not have to be all uploaded at the same time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">They just have to be uploaded or disabled before the deadline.</span>The Seekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04486849698706701533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3031389366057684311.post-45838788453543591942009-09-18T18:00:00.005-04:002011-08-06T23:19:49.531-04:00Stories from sectionsSome person by the name of Anonymous left us this inquiry:<br />
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<blockquote>I have another question regarding special sections; are stories published in special sections eligible for submission in the feature writing category? </blockquote><br />
Well, Anon, yes. Here's why -- the special section category judges the entirety of a section, not the individual elements of the section. Consequently, stories, headlines, photos, etc. that run in the section may be entered separately.<br />
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One caveat though: In order to be eligible, the section must have been inserted as part of the newspaper. Material from stand-alone niche publications cannot be entered.<br />
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Thanks for the question and next time don't feel so anonymous.The Seekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04486849698706701533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3031389366057684311.post-3490100699681671872009-09-16T10:32:00.002-04:002009-09-16T10:41:44.314-04:00Special section questionWe received this inquiry from Ken at the Havelock News:<br /><blockquote>We put together a special magazine on our city's 50th anniversary. We were in charge of content. However, our Shopper was in charge of selling it. The cover of the magazine states that it is a product of the Havelock News and Shopper. Would this preclude it from being allowed to be entered into the special section category? Again, the news content is ours. The advertising is theirs.</blockquote>It sounds like fair game for the Special Section category to us, as long as it was inserted in your newspaper and not just in the shopper.The Seekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04486849698706701533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3031389366057684311.post-56464320722158808132009-09-16T10:21:00.001-04:002009-09-16T10:32:40.737-04:00What counts as a headline?<span style="font-family: times new roman;"></span>We received this question from Cathy concerning the headline category: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Can overlines/photo kickers be entered as headlines? </span><br /><br />Overlines, for the most part, should be considered one part of a total headline. So, while you wouldn’t enter an overline by itself, you could enter it with the primary headline. (This presumes we're both defining overlines as a small headline that appears above the main headline. Unfortunately newspaper terms many times are unique to particular newspapers and the same word can mean different things at different papers.)<br /><br />Photo kickers (as in the headlines above a cutline) might be a bit more tricky to categorize. In a sense they are headlines, but not for what we consider a traditional story. In the end, this would really come down to what the specific person judging your category thinks about it. If it was me judging, I might not reject a photo kicker as a headline, but I’d probably not give it as much weight as a story headline. In the absence of a rule prohibiting it, you should be able to enter a photo kicker, but would you really want to take a chance? A simple piece of advice: I wouldn't.The Seekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04486849698706701533noreply@blogger.com0