Matt L. Stephens of the Fort Collins Coloradoan won first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2015 contest in Short Video for the Under 30,000 circulation category.
Stephens won for his feature explaining NCAA cost of attendance stipend for Colorado State University athletes. He will be presented a first-place plaque at the 2016 APSE banquet. The banquet and awards dinner concludes the APSE Conference June 22-25 at The Omni-Charlotte in Charlotte, N.C.
Stephens’s video edged runner-up Elizabeth Varin of Aberdeen American News. Jane Allison Havsy of the Daily Record placed third.
Sports editors in the Under 30,000 category submitted 15 video 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 3-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 Short Video category judges a collection of videos that sheds a new light on various issues in the news, including trends and original ideals. Entries were limited to 10 videos, with optional material allowed to seen at the discretion of judges.
The top 3 is listed below with links to videographer’s Twitter pages, APSE member websites and winning entries.
- Matt l. Stephens, Fort Collins Coloradoan, 18 points, 6 first-place votes
Explaining NCAA cost of attendance stipend for CSU athletes
- Elizabeth Varin, Aberdeen American News, 10 points
BMX racers take off for state-qualifying races
- Jane Allison Havsy, Daily Record, 8 points
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