Posted By Becky Bisbee

This year”™s “Best in Business” contest date for business news columnists is Dec. 9.

Columnists must enter their Dec. 9 column or the first column published after that date.

And as a reminder, here are the mandatory dates for the other categories:

The mandatory dates for newspaper business sections in the general excellence category are Thursday, May 1; Sunday, July 13; and Wednesday, Sept. 24.

In addition, editors can chose any Monday or Tuesday edition, any Friday or Saturday edition, and any Sunday edition.

For business weeklies, the mandatory entry dates are Sunday April 27 to Saturday, May 3; Sunday, July 13 to Saturday, July 19; and Sunday, Sept. 21 to Saturday, Sept. 27.

For the magazine general excellence category , the mandatory entry date is the May issue or the first issue published after May.

For blogs, the mandatory entry date is Friday, Jan. 11, or the first blog entry after Jan. 11.

The mandatory entry date for business columns will be announced at a later date.

As announced in September , SABEW is launching a new category, the Best of the Best awards, to be presented to the contest”™s very most impressive entries. A special panel will sort through all the winning entries and choose the Best of the Best, which will be announced at the awards banquet during SABEW’s annual conference in Denver next April.

As always, the “Best in Business” award winners will be announced by late March.

The deadline for entries is 5 p.m. Central time on Friday, Jan. 30.

SABEW is the premier organization of business journalists, with more than 3,500 members in North America and a number of foreign countries.