2006 News: SABEW Best In Business Journalism Contest Adds Columnist Category, Online Registration

The Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) 12th annual Best in Business contest is getting bigger and better than ever. This year's competition offers two major changes: registration of all entries online at www.sabew.org, and a new category for business columnists.

The deadline for online registration of all entries is February 1, 2006. Paper copies of entries must be sent to SABEW postmarked no later than February 8, 2006. The contest is for work published in calendar 2005.

SABEW hopes to make life easier for busy business journalists by offering online registration for Best in Business entries. Follow the instructions at www.sabew.org and use handy dropdown menus to choose the appropriate contest category, join SABEW for 2006, and pay for both by credit card.

We are pleased to announce a new competition for business columnists. Columnists are an influential and popular read in many newspapers, as well as online, and SABEW wants to recognize the best work by this special breed of business journalists.

The Best in Business contest has two main components – the SECTION competition to select outstanding daily newspaper business sections and weekly business newspapers, and the NEWS contest to select the best individual stories or packages of stories published by the business news media.

The SECTION competition for daily newspapers is divided into four categories based on average daily circulation, plus a fifth category for all weekly newspapers:

SMALL: up to 125,000
MEDIUM: 125,001 to 250,000
LARGE: 250,001 to 375,000
GIANT: 375,001 and above
WEEKLY: all in one category

Editors entering the SECTION contest should read the rules carefully as copies of the newspaper must be submitted for three mandatory dates in order to provide our judges with a representative sample of the newspaper.

The three mandatory dates are:
Wednesday, April 27
Thursday, June 16
Sunday, November 6

Weekly newspapers must submit the editions published during the following weeks:

Sunday, April 24 to Saturday April 30
Sunday, June 12 to Saturday June 18
Sunday, November 6 to Saturday November 12

The NEWS competition is divided into four main categories:

Breaking News: A package of up to seven stories planned, reported and written in a single day under deadline pressure. The judges will give greater weight to the quality of the main story of the package. The best sidebars, graphics and pictures cannot compensate for a main story that is weak. The judges also will give greater weight to coverage of UNANTICIPATED events than to coverage of events that are expected. This is because it is much more difficult to do quality work on the fly than with stories in the hopper ready to go at a moments notice.

Enterprise: A single story that demonstrates exceptional enterprise. It can be a scoop, an interview that sheds unique light on a newsmaker or an issue, an analysis that shows enterprise reporting and/or original thought. An enterprise entry should be planned, original and deeply reported. This category is NOT for an investigative series (see Projects).

Projects: A series of up to five stories, or a story of up to five parts, that is investigative in nature or extensively researched. The stories should be reported over time. The stories should raise fresh issues, provide insight and/or clear explanation. Judges will take into account the impact or reaction to the stories (the impact/reaction may be explained in a one-page cover letter).

Columns: A new category this year. All types of columns on business subjects are eligible. Entries will be judged based on the size of daily newspapers where they appear (see circulation sizes above for Giant, Large, Medium, Small). All weekly newspaper columns will be judged together, and all columns appearing on real time media such as wire services, or online, will be judged together. There will be a separate sub-category for syndicated or freelance columns. Four columns are required per entry; 3 are writers choice, the mandatory date is Thursday June 16th.

For complete contest rules, instructions on how to register online, prepare an entry for mailing, information on contest fees and FAQ, see www.sabew.org.

CONTACTS: BIB Contest Committee Co-chair Greg McCune at 312-408-8701 or e-mail greg.mccune@reuters.com, Co-chair Jill Jordan Spitz at 520-573-4177 or e-mail jspitz@azstarnet.com, or SABEW Executive Director Carrie Paden at 573-882-7862, or e-mail padenc@missouri.edu