APSE contest change

Tough case to make, considering the contest has been around since at least the early 1990s.

 

I was being sarcastic; however, I seriously believe we'd be better off without awards. It kills me to think of the number of people out there who get off on winning awards like it makes them automatically the best thing since sliced bread. Not to mention how subjective awards often are and how much they cater to a good old boy network.

They are utter bullshit and I'm sick of people treating them like they're anything but.

 

I know what you mean when you write this, and I think you have a point. Sometimes people take winning awards too seriously and get obsessive about it.
BUT I also hear this refrain from people/sections that don't win awards (for various reasons but often because they don't really push themselves). I see it as a defense mechanism or a justification for their actions (or lack thereof). I'm not saying these comments necessarily falls into this category.
Does winning awards and serving readership have to be mutally exclusive? I don't know. I think you can do both.
I understand the repugnance for people/sections doing something just to win an award (Albom's year-end parade of columns on young people who died), but I think if someone/a sports section does good work, they're usually rewarded and awarded consistently.
That's been my experience anyway. I think "utter bullshit" goes a bit too far.

 

spnited: I know that's where your head has always been, but I continue to disagree -- strongly.

Some of those "contest oriented" sections were some of the best readers got, ever. Tons of space, tons of things to pick and choose to read, absolutely comprehensive, great writing, great photos.

I have never subscribed to the theory that a paper that wins a contest somehow jipped the readers. Based on my experience with judging, it's precisely because they served the readers that sections won contests.

This is NOT directed at you, because I simply don't know you well enough, but a lot of the "contest-winning-sections-don't-serve-readers" bitching has historically been from sports editors who weren't given the resources that ultimately won contests.