SPJ awards are out ...

...Geoff Calkins wins for sports columns. Added to his APSE award for the same.

http://www.spj.org/news.asp?REF=664#664

 

Pretty impressive to see a paper like Rome, Ga., get recognition. Goes to show you that if you're doing fantastic work, it'll get noticed.

 

Only one overall sports award given out for all circulations?

Fnord. (Sorry, Geoff.)

 

Yes and no. Mark Alesia of the Indianapolis Star won for the online component of his report on college sports financing. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and take a look.
http://www2.indystar.com/NCAA_financial_reports/

The story has vanished into the mists of the Internet, but here are the nut graphs:
"Athletic departments at taxpayer-funded universities nationwide receive more than $1 billion in student fees and general school funds and services, according to an Indianapolis Star analysis of the 2004-05 athletic budgets of 164 of the nation's 215 biggest public schools. Without such outside funding, fewer than 10 percent of athletic departments would have been able to support themselves with ticket sales, television contracts and other revenue-generating sports sources. Most would have lost more than $5 million.
Additionally, taxpayers indirectly subsidize athletic departments because college sports are exempt from federal taxes, based on their tie to education. The exemption particularly benefits big schools, which receive up to 40 percent of their athletic revenue from donations, most of which are tax-deductible. At Indiana University, for example, donations constitute 21 percent of revenue; at Purdue, 27 percent.
Also untaxed is the massive amount of television money that fuels college sports. All told, that's hundreds of millions of untaxed dollars.
Critics find this inappropriate. They say college sports have largely become a business of mass entertainment -- such as this weekend's Final Four in Indianapolis -- that shouldn't receive an education-based tax exemption. In a time of rising tuition and stagnant state support for higher education, they say sports shouldn't be propped up by so much money generated outside athletic departments. Some students have fought sports-targeted fees, including at IU, which will discontinue the requirement for the 2006-07 school year."

Alesia makes a habit of doing excellent enterprise reporting. He achieves this despite the disadvantages of working for a newspaper company (Gannett) that is growing cheaper by the minute and didn't even send him to this year's NCAA convention despite the fact that he covers the NCAA for the Indy Star, whose offices are blocks away from the NCAA's.

 

A hearty second to Mike's comment. Mark Alesia is an excellent reporter, and a great guy too. I've used that data base in teaching college sports journalism classes.

 

Documentaries (Network/Top 25 Markets)
“In the Footsteps of Bin Laden,” Christiane Amanpour, Ken Shiffman and Cliff Hackel, CNN, Atlanta


This won? Wasn't this the show that almost seemed like a Bin Laden infomercial?