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Explain Awards to Me. Seriously.

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by jgmacg, Mar 4, 2008.

  1. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    My first editor made it a point to say how stupid awards were. He was proud that all of our section awards from the state press association were tucked away in the bottom drawer of his desk. The attitude rubbed off on me.
    At least a little.
    First first-place award I won went up on my wall at home, and I added a few more over the years. I was damned proud of them because, to me, it was validation that I was actually good at what I do. The more I've won, the more I feel that way. Anybody can win one. If you win a few over the course of a few years, it's a sign to me that I'm still doing a good job.
     
  2. expendable

    expendable Well-Known Member

    They don't have enough poker reruns to get them through the summer.
     
  3. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    Awards are a measure of quality. The right/wrong measure from the right/wrong people.

    BASW is an award, any way you slice it. People generally cherish placement in there.
     
  4. expendable

    expendable Well-Known Member

    Judge Smales: If you don't submit for awards, how do you measure yourself against other writers?
    Ty Webb: By height.
     
  5. old_tony

    old_tony Well-Known Member

    I never cared for awards and never entered any of my stuff. But after 20-some years, I've got a boss who is screwing me royally, so I wish I had entered stuff over the years. My work has been lauded by my colleagues both at my shop and by other colleagues around the country when they've seen it on the wires. One guy in particular who lauded my stuff is now a biggie writer at ESPN Magazine.

    But a different boss got in charge of my career years ago, and it's been a bitch ever since. I worked my ass off to get back to an assignment I loved and had it pulled from me after a short time. So if I had some of those awards I could maybe have staved off the screw jobs the guy put to me.

    In the end, though, I've never written for contests, editors or myself. I've always written what I thought the reader needed most to know in the space I was allotted. If that's not good enough, then so be it.
     
  6. My feeling on awards has changed over the last couple years. Some might say it's bitterness over never having won one, but I say it's a little sign of maturity and understanding of what awards really entail because they are so subjective sometimes.

    Two years ago I thought I had some really good stuff but didn't even get a sniff for state awards. It bummed me out for about a week. I think more than anything I was just looking for some kind of validation that I was doing well that was not my grandmother telling me how well I'm doing. And while I still hope to have a wall full of APSE plaques some day, it didn't bum me out for more than about 10 minutes last week to see I didn't win an APSE. I don't think it matters anymore whether judges, or even readers to an extent, like my writing. I judge myself anymore by knowing I'm doing a good job each and every week. I'm hitting the features I should be, taking on topical issues when it's pertinent, localizing national stories and just generally giving the attention to my beats that I should be. I judge how I'm doing in this job by how I feel on Sunday and Monday (my two days off). I'm usually beat to hell, just tired as can be. And that tells me that I've done a lot during my week, and to me, that means I've done well and I don't need a plaque to tell me that.










    But I'm not about to turn one down either ;D
     
  7. Awards are like women.

    The harder you try to get one, the least likely you will.
     
  8. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    Your info is usually pretty good, so I am not just giving you shit, but A LOT? I don't think so. The APSE awards would be dead by now if that were the case.

    I can't say I've been anyplace where we really obsessed about APSE awards as an everyday thing or plotted how to win them. At a couple places that had a long history of winning them, it was kind of a burden. You didn't want the run to end on your watch, but we kind of just did our thing. I mean, unless you want to manipulate the categories so mathematically you're virtually assured a section win, what more can you do? And who would do that? [/blue font]

    The contest wasn't so bad in the 1980s and I spent most of that decade on papers that didn't win all the time. I think moving from three circ categories to four watered it down and made winning less something to celebrate and more something that you felt was required of you.

    Now the Pulitzers, I've always enjoyed. Been there when some were won, was one place where we completely expected to win a specific one and didn't, was one place where we expected to win a specific one and didn't but won a different one that we didn't really expect. But it's fun -- they move one by one on the AP wire. There are papers that I have no connection to but always liked, and I enjoy seeing them win every once in a while.

    I have an SND from the 1990s. I'm not sure if it comes in a frame or the paper did it, but I know if it wasn't in a frame and I wasn't married, it would be in a drawer because my walls were always bare when I was single, mostly because I never felt like spending the money to get anything framed. Once my sister gave me a framed painting and when I moved I left it there because I wasn't used to pulling anything off walls and just forgot it was there. Anyway, the SND is on a bookcase in the guest room.
     
  9. Jeremy Goodwin

    Jeremy Goodwin Active Member

    For me they are affirmation of good work. If you submit something for an award it probably means that you really like the story or section, that your coworkers like the story/section and that readers or others in the industry like the story / section. When you win an award, it's good to know that other people enjoy and recognize what you do as good, though it's just one person or one panel's opinion. I know what coworkers and friends in the industry think of my work. They let me know when I do something good and sometimes let me know when I fall short. Sometimes it's hard to tell how real the compliments are because they are your friends. When someone you don't know looks and appreciates your work it's like "hey, that really was a good story." Parents and friends outside the industry don't always know much about good writing, and when I talk to them about work they will usually mention whatever the last story they read of mine was and will say it's good. I guess winning an award proves to friends and family that I'm good at what I do. I might not know what it takes to be accountant of the year for the _____ region, but if a friend got that I would be happy for them because it means they are respected and honored for what they do.

    Good or bad, I've put a lot of weight into APSE awards. I'm at my first gig out of college and when applying for internships and jobs I (for good or bad) used APSE or other awards as a barometer of how good the paper.
    Obviously there are good papers that don't win awards, but as a college student listing APSE and other awards were a way for me to justify to parents and friends that I was interning or applying to good places. I interned at a major metro paper that has won a bunch of awards. My parents understood that I was working for a big paper, but when I told them about the awards they realized how I might be able to further my career by interning there and learn from some of the best in the industry.

    When I was applying for my first job I was thinking about sending resumes / clips to editors at the 40K and under section placers the past few years from APSE. As a newbie looking for a job I figured there is no editor ranking system, but the papers that are winning awards have to be doing something right. I guess with journalism it's harder to figure out who is doing a good job when you're in a national job search than looking for a teaching job or business job because there are industry ratings and rankings.

    I wasn't picky about where I applied for jobs, but when I became a finalists for some jobs I was more interested in the paper that had won some awards. When I accepted my current job many of my friends wondered why I was moving from the suburbs of a major city to a different part of the country and a somewhat remote place. Friends who were teachers or business majors easily got a job in the suburbs or downtown. They didn't understand how tough it would be to jump from college to the major metro. When I told friends that the paper I was working at had won some awards and people moved on to bigger papers some what frequently, they realized I made a good decision, though I was moving more than 15 hours away.

    As others have said, if you're young they can help you get noticed. Not everyone has a chance to go to a top college or cover a DI beat in college and mingle with guys at metros. If you're from a small school or small town and you win an award you might get on the radar of some editors at bigger papers and move up quicker. Two kids from Mizzou won APSE writing awards. I bet they will have an easier time finding their first job than others they graduate with because lot of editors pay attention to these awards.

    I'm young and stupid. I probably put too much weight into awards, but my view has changed reading all the APSE threads the past few weeks.
    If you win them, great. If not, it shouldn't diminish your work or what you think of it.
     
  10. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    damned solid.
     
  11. Stone Cane

    Stone Cane Member

    I'm with Twoback here.

    About six or seven years ago, I realized that the pursuit - almost an obsession - of awards was changing the way I wrote. While working on certain pieces, I'd ask myself, "What would the judges think of this graph," etc.

    I haven't entered a contest since.

    I've got a closet full of state and regional awards and four APSEs, including a first and a third that I am proud of. I admit it was cool standing on the podium and getting my first-place plaque.

    but different things become more important as you get older.

    I really really really like not entering anything anymore.
     
  12. Stone Cane

    Stone Cane Member

    you know, that's a great line, but I'm not sure it's true

    I think there's a certain style and a certain type of story that wins, and a lot of scribes go after those type of stories with awards in mind and write them with awards in mind

    they're writing for judges and not readers and i hate that
     
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