Posted By Becky Bisbee

This year SABEW launches a Best of the Best award designed to reward the very best work entered in SABEW’s Best in Business contest. After BIB judging is completed, two uber-judging panels (one for General Excellence, one for all other categories) will review all the winning entries. Best of the Best judging panels, made up of SABEW past presidents and Distinguished Service Award winners, will single out only those entries that rise far above the rest.

For example, they might decide a column entry is particularly noteworthy, that a project was truly groundbreaking or that a business section showcased so much watchdog reporting or creative presentation that it stood far above the competition.

Best of the Best winners will be announced at the 2009 Best in Business ceremony, to be held at SABEW Annual Conference 2009 in Denver, April 26-28, 2009.

Key Requirements

• At least one contributor to each contest entry must be a current SABEW member (membership current at least through Feb. 1, 2009), either as an individual or listed as a staff member on an institutional membership.
• The person filling out the entry form(s) must have a Web site user account with SABEW. (If you do not have an account, please register now. If you have forgotten your user name or password, click here.)
• For newspapers and magazines entering the contest General Excellence Division, the entry and payment process is electronic but the actual entry must be mailed to SABEW and postmarked by Jan. 30, 2009. Entry fees vary per category type and circulation size.
• For newspapers, magazines and real time organizations entering the contest News Division, the entry submission and payment process is electronic. The entry itself (which may include a permalink URL) must be attached as a single compressed file to the entry form. Nothing is mailed to the SABEW office.
• Contest Online Division entries should be submitted as permalink URLs on the Online Division Entry Form. If a site is password-protected, the entrant must provide a password. Credit card information must be provided separately to SABEW by phone, fax or mail (must be postmarked by Jan. 30, 2009). See Online Division Rules for additional information.
• The contest Student Division requires submission of the electronic entry form with the entry itself and a letter verifying the originality of the work attached as a single compressed file to the entry form.

Contest Rules

Membership Requirement

Entrants must be current paid members of SABEW (with membership current at least through Feb. 1, 2009) in order to enter the contest. If you cannot find your organization or your name, you will need to join SABEW or renew your membership prior to entering. Note: You must join no later than Jan. 28, 2009, in order to add you/your employer to the database for entry on January 30.

At least one person who worked on an entry must be a SABEW member. Whoever fills out the entry form must have a SABEW Web site user account. This will automatically populate most fields on the forms during the electronic submission. If you are submitting entries for your organization and you are not a SABEW paid member (for example, if you are an administrator in charge of contest entries), select Non-SABEW Member from the Membership Type drop-down list when filling out the Web site User Registration form.

Register for a SABEW Web site user account | Go to Web site user login page

Circulation Size

BIB General Excellence and News division entrants must know the circulation size of their newspaper or magazine before starting the submission process. (Your membership record includes this information. Go to Member Database Search to find your membership record. You must be a member and have registered as a SABEW

Online division entrants must know their site’s average monthly number of unique visitors.

Judging

SABEW’s Best in Business contest judges are top journalism professionals including senior editors of newspapers, magazines and wire services, broadcasters, prize-winning business journalists, respected beat reporters, columnists and journalism academics.

In the General Excellence, News and Online contest divisions, up to three awards may be presented in each size category. Certificates of merit will not be presented this year.

The student contest will have two winners, one for the best business story in a student publication and one for the best business story in a professional publication.

Judging Timeline

• Feb. 13, 2009 – SABEW staff will send BIB entries to Judges
• March 6, 2009 – BIB judging complete
• March 7-13, 2009 – Judges submit winning entries and comments
• March 14-28, 2009 – Judges select Best of the Best

Questions

For questions about the print contest, contact Jill Jorden Spitz at jspitz@azstarnet.com or (520) 349-3326.
For questions about the online contest, contact Dan Haar at dhaar@courant.com or (860) 241-6536.
For questions about the magazine contest, contact Lisa Gibbs at lgibbs@miamiherald.com or (305) 376-3578.

Note: A permalink, or permanent link, is a URL that points to the location of a specific Web page that remains unchanged indefinitely after the page has passed from the front page to the archives.