Associated Press Sports Editors is now accepting entries for its annual website contest.
This is a transitional judging year as APSE moves to a more year-round judging format for the website contest. Entries will be judged during a 30-day period during the football season and again during a second 30-day window before the start of the Winter Conference in early February. A top 10 and 10 honorable mentions in each category will be revealed at the start of the Winter Conference in early February.
Deadline for entry is midnight ET on Sept. 30, 2014.
For the first time, website-only news organizations are eligible for the website contest.
Entries will be judged by category determined by the level at which the news organization pays APSE dues: for news organizations with daily print products, this is determined by average daily circulation; for website-only news organizations, this is determined by unique monthly visitors:
Here are the categories:
Category A: Over 175,000/more than 2 million unique monthly visitors
Category B: 75,001 to 175,000/from 750,001 to 1.999 million unique monthly visitors
Category C: 30,000 to 75,000/from 250,000 to 750,000 unique monthly visitors
Category D: Under 30,000/less than 250,000 unique monthly visitors
The entry should include:
1. The name of the news organization (i.e. Midtown Daily Gazette)
2. Category the news organization is entering
3. The URL/web address of the website(s) to be judged: news organizations which utilize more than one website platform should include all pertinent website addresses
4. For websites with pay walls of any sort, the entry should include a password or passwords which judges can use to access the website(s)
5. Entries may include a cover letter explaining how the website’s primary focus of coverage and key navigation points (i.e. “All of our prep coverage can be found on www.localpreps.com, while our community sports coverage is under the sports tab on our main website, midtowngazette.com — and you can find our special projects under the ‘sports reports’ tab on the midtowngazette.com website). Please keep the cover letter short. Do NOT send links to specific multimedia work (i.e. nothing along the lines of “Make sure to check out our big college football enterprise project that we did last summer, go to www.midtowngazzette.com/footballproject” – that work can be submitted for the multimedia contest).
6. Name, email address, work and cell phone for contact person from the organization.
Websites will be judged on the following criteria, weighted as listed in parenthesis:
* Subject matter: Quality of staff-produced material (30 percent)
* Display: Proper arrangement of content for an enriched user experience (30 percent)
* Timeliness: Up-to-date content that reflects the news organization’s commitment to keeping the online product fresh (30 percent)
* Navigability: Ease of ability to maneuver around the site, user-friendliness (10 percent)
Please email all entries to tommy.deas@tuscaloosanews.com. Questions or requests for clarification can also be sent to this email address.
