Brad Elliott Schlossman of Grand Forks Herald won first place in The Associated Press Sports Editors 2019 contest in Beat Writing in the C Division.
Schlossman will be presented a first-place plaque at the 2020 APSE Summer Conference Banquet at The Alexander Hotel in Indianapolis on June 27. Taylor Eldridge of Wichita Eagle was the runner-up.
Sports editors in the C Division submitted 48 beat writing entries. Contest chair Lisa Wilson and fellow APSE officers Todd M. Adams, Gary Potosky and Dan Spears prepared the entries.
The contest is open to APSE members. Click here to join.
In February, preliminary judges at the APSE Winter Conference in St. Petersburg, Fla., and off-site around the country, selected a top 10, with each judge ranking the entries in order from 1 to 10 on a separate ballot. Entries were given 10 points for a first-place vote, nine points for second and so on down to one point for a 10th-place vote. The final 10 were given to a second judging group, which ranked the entries 1-10 in the same fashion.
The winner and final rankings are determined by tallying the ballots.
The winner in each category will receive a plaque at the summer conference. The second- through 10th-place finishers will receive certificates.
Beat writing is a collection of five pieces by a single author that shows authoritative, newsy and innovative coverage of a beat. Each writer was required to submit one breaking news story, one event or game coverage story and one enterprise story. The final two pieces were to the writer’s discretion, and could include multimedia presentations.
The top eight is listed below with links to the winning entries.
- Brad Elliott Schlossman, Grand Forks Herald 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 46 points
2. Taylor Eldridge, Wichita Eagle 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 45 points
T-3. Brandon Marcello, Auburn Undercover 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 44 points, two first-place votes
T-3. Matt Connolly, The State (Columbia, SC) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 44 points, one-first place vote
5. Kellis Robinett, Wichita Eagle 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 43 points, one-first place vote
6. Scott Petrak, Chronicle-Telegram (Elyria, Ohio) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 35 points, one first-place vote
7. Eric Hansen, South Bend Tribune 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 29 points
8. Mike Waters, Syracuse.com/Post-Standard 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 17 points
Note: Two finalists were later disqualified for entries with multiple bylines
