The deadline is approaching for the inaugural Associated Press Sports Editors student contest. Entries will be accepted until midnight local time (for the student entering) on May 15. Only one entry per student is allowed
All entries must be submitted by email to apsecontest@gmail.com. Entries should be marked STUDENT CONTEST ENTRY in the subject line.
Here are the details:
1. The contest is open to all APSE student members and all members of APSE student chapters. The student chapter president or faculty representative will need to verify membership of any student chapter member who enters – the student entering needs to ask the faculty rep to send a list of members to the email address provided below.
Students who are not members of a student chapter must join APSE to be eligible. The membership fee is $25. To join, go to http://pay.apsportseditors.com
Entries must come from students who have been enrolled at a college or university during the contest period, including graduate students.
2. The single contest category will be Portfolio. A student may enter only one portfolio. All work must have been done by the student alone – no co-byline material allowed. (For a video or multimedia entry, the content must be conceived, edited and produced by the student, but can involve someone else to operate a camera if the student is on camera.)
The portfolio will have five elements: (a) a feature story, (b) an enterprise story, (c) a breaking news story, (d) a multimedia or video item (not to exceed 30 minutes) and (e) a wild-card entry, which can be from the above categories or something else.
Cover letter links should be labeled so the judges know which entry is for which element, like this:
3. All work entered must have been published, but does not have to have been published in a student publication. It can be from an internship, from stringing with a local paper, writing for a website, a student newspaper or college magazine, etc. It cannot, however, be published only on the student’s own “see my work here” portfolio web page.
4. No redaction will be required and there is no anonymity for entries. All entries will be submitted via links to the published work (see above).
6. Work must come from the period of June 1, 2016, through May 10, 2017.
7. The contest will be judged off-site by at least five judges.
8. A top 10 will be chosen out of all entries, with the top 10 then ranked in order from first place to 10th.
9. Winners will be announced before the APSE Summer Conference, which will take place in June in New Orleans. A plaque will be awarded for first place. Printable certificates will be emailed to other top 10 finishers.
10. Each entry will be accompanied by a cover letter that includes links to the five content items included in the portfolio. The cover letter must also include the name of the student, the school in which the student is enrolled and whether the student is an individual member or a member of an APSE student chapter, as well as email and phone contact information.
Here is a description of each category:
Breaking News:
Coverage of breaking news. This can be a story that the student broke or coverage of a breaking-news event that sheds further light on the event and adds information or understanding of the breaking news. Judges, using their discretion, will weigh the various elements of a breaking news story: timeliness, thoroughness, exclusivity, significance – emphasis will be given to actually breaking news. These should be explained in the cover letter.
Enterprise: Stores can include trends, issues and original ideas that shed new light on issues and personalities in the news. They are more than a feature and provide deeper insight and research into the topic. They go beyond the “yesterday” of the breaking news story. Cover letter can explain the origin of the story and the difficulty in obtaining information.
Feature:
Judging will be on human interest, reader interest, quality of writing and thoroughness of reporting.
Video or multimedia:
A single video or multimedia content item, with videos not to exceed 30 minutes. (If the student has a video series, he or she must choose the best of the lot and enter it – several in a series cannot be submitted, but the cover letter can explain the scope of the series.)
Multimedia includes interactive graphics (which must be conceived, designed and executed by the student entering), audio, slideshows or combinations thereof, or anything else that falls under the broad description of multimedia. Video should be self-explanatory. Entries will be judged, foremost, on the strength of storytelling. Visual and auditory quality will be considered.
Wild card:
This can be a second entry from any of the above categories or something else: a column, an investigative piece, an alternate story form item. Etc.
If you have any questions about the contest, email apsecontest@gmail.com with STUDENT CONTEST QUESTION in the subject line.
