By Todd M. Adams, APSE Second Vice President
Rebecca R. Ruiz and Tariq Panja of The New York Times won first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2017 contest in breaking news for the Over 175,000 circulation category.
Ruiz and Panja will be presented a first-place plaque at the 2018 APSE Summer Conference Banquet at the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University on June 20.
Ruiz and Panja edged runner-up David Barron and Jake Kaplan from The Houston Chronicle. Martin Rogers from USA Today placed third.
Sports editors in the Over 175,000 category submitted 58 breaking news entries. The contest is open to APSE members. Click here to join.
Contest chair John Bednarowski and fellow APSE officers Todd M. Adams, Robert Gagliardi and Jeff Rosen 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 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 separately on a secret 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 2018 APSE Summer Conference at the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University on June 17-20. The second- through ninth-place writers will receive frameable certificates.
The breaking news category judges articles of a sports news development (trades, hirings, firings, franchise shifts, etc.) that occurred in the most recent news cycle. Organizations were allowed to 3 entries. The top 10 is listed below with links to writers’ Twitter pages, APSE member websites and winning entries.
- Rebecca R. Ruiz and Tariq Panja, The New York Times, 52 points, 5 first-place votes
Russia Banned From Winter Olympics by I.O.C.
2. David Barron and Jake Kaplan, The Houston Chronicle, 45 points
As MLB ruling nears, new details of Cardinals’ hacking of Astros account
3. Martin Rogers, USA Today, 43 points, 1 first-place vote
Tom Brady suspects Super Bowl jersey was stolen after game
4. Liz Clarke, John Woodrow Cox, Mike Jones and Master Tesfatsion, The Washington Post, 37 points
Redskins fire GM Scot McCloughan after two seasons
5. Rick O’Brien, Justine McDaniel, Aaron Carter, Philadelphia Inquirer, 31 points
6. Jim Baumbach and Robert Brodsky, Newsday, 30 points
Islanders’ arena bid picked for Belmont Park
7. Newsday staff, Newsday, 28 points
High School football player killed after log falls on head during practice
8. Bob Nightengale, USA Today, 20 points
Orioles’ Adam Jones berated by racist taunts at Fenway Park
9. Marc Carig, Newsday, 19 points
Fred Wilpon protected Mets manager Terry Collins from getting fired
10. Liz Clarke and Abby Phillip, The Washington Post, 15 points
In showings of protest and solidarity, NFL teams respond to Trump’s criticism
