By Tommy Deas

APSE President

Matt L. Stephens of the Fort Collins Coloradoan won first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2016 contest in the Multimedia category for the Under 30,000 circulation category.

Stephens won for his look at Colorado State’s Hughes Stadium. The winner in each category will receive a plaque at the 2017 APSE Summer Conference at the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans June 26-29. (Click here to register for the conference.) The banquet and awards dinner will conclude the APSE Summer Conference, which takes place June 26-29 at The Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans.

Stephens won over the second-place entry by Brett McCormick, Garrison Gist and Reid Williams of The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.). McCormick, for a separate entry, and Brett Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Fork (N.D.) Herald tied for third.

Sports editors in the Under 30,000 category submitted 16 entries in the Multimedia category. The contest is open to APSE members. Click here to join.

In February, preliminary judges at the APSE Winter Conference in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., and off-site around the country, selected a top five, with each judge ranking the entries in order from 1 to 5 separately on a secret ballot. Entries were given five points for a first-­place vote down to one point for a fifth-place vote. The final five were given to a second judging group, which ranked the entries 1-­5 in the same fashion. The winner and final rankings are determined by tallying the ballots.

The multimedia category includes interactive graphics, audio, slideshows or combinations thereof, or anything else that falls under the broad description of multimedia other than simple videos. Entries will be judged, foremost, on the strength of storytelling. Visual and auditory quality were also considered.

The top 10 is listed below, with links to writers’ Twitter pages, APSE member websites and winning entries.

  1. Matt L. Stephens, Fort Collins Coloradoan, 28 points (5 first-place votes)

CSU Football at Hughes Stadium: A #360video Experience

  1. Brett McCormick, Garrison Gist and Reid Williams, The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.), 20 points

Multimedia: Examining new football regions created by SCHSL’s 2016-18 realignment

  1. (tie) Brad Elliott Schlossman, Grand Forks (N.D.) Dakota Daily Herald, 15 points

INTERACTIVE MAP: Take a tour through the NCHC

  1. (tie) Brett McCormick, The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.), 15 points (1 first-place vote)

Interactive: all of the South Pointe state championship coverage in one spot

  1. Daniel Shirley and Caitlyn Stroh, The Telegraph (Macon, Ga.), 12 points

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