Matt L. Stephens and Eric Larsen of the Fort Collins Coloradoan took first place at the Associated Press Sports Editors 2015 contest in the Multimedia category in the Under 30,000 circulation.
The pair’s 360-degree video puts viewers in the seat on the USA Pro Challenge Northern Colorado stage.
The duo will be presented a first-place plaque at the 2016 APSE banquet. The banquet and awards dinner concludes the APSE Conference June 24-27 at The Omni-Charlotte in Charlotte, N.C.
Bret McCormick of The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.) came in second. Ryan Holmgren of the Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune placed third.
Sports editors in the Under 30,000 category submitted 12 multimedia entries. The contest is open to APSE members. Click here to join.
Contest chair Tommy Deas numbered each entry, assuring they had been stripped of headlines, graphics, bylines and any other element that would identify the writer or news organization.
In late February and early March, preliminary judges at the APSE Winter Conference at Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., selected a top 3, with each judge ranking the entries in order from 1 to 3 separately on a secret ballot. Entries were given three points for a first-place vote, two points for second and one point for a 3rd-place vote. The final 3 were given to a second judging group, which ranked the entries 1-3 in the same fashion. The winner and final rankings are determined by tallying the ballots.
The top 3 is listed below with links to writers’ Twitter pages, APSE member websites and winning entries.
1. Matt L. Stephens and Eric Larsen, Fort Collins Coloradoan, 17 points
USA Pro Challenge: Race the Pro
2. Bret McCormick, The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.), 11 points
South Pointe shooting for back to back state titles
3. Ryan Holmgren, Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune, 8 points
