Posted By Becky Bisbee

The General Excellence competition selects outstanding daily newspapers with a concentration of business news, weekly business newspapers, magazines and business Web sites (or business pages on general news sites). At least one member of a newspaper, magazine or online business staff must be a SABEW member to enter the General Excellence contest.

In the General Excellence or News Contest, up to three awards may be presented in each size category.  Certificates of merit will not be presented.

General Excellence Categories:

Daily Newspapers

Daily Newspapers are divided into four categories based on circulation:

Small: Up to 125,000

Medium: 125,001 to 225,000

Large: 225,001 to 325,000

Giant: 325,001 and above

Note: For daily newspapers, circulation categories are based on average daily circulation calculated by taking total weekly circulation, including Sunday if you publish then, and dividing it by the number of days the paper is published. So, if you publish every day of the week, divide by seven. If you do not publish on Sunday, divide by six and so on.

Magazines

News magazines are divided into two categories based on size of circulation:

Small: Under 500,000

Giant: 500,000 and over

Weekly Newspapers

All Weekly Newspapers compete in one category.

Web Sites

All Websites are eligible to compete in this category. There is also a General Excellence category for online publications. Submit the url of the website on the entry form.

Note: If your stories are published in both print and Web formats, you may enter the same news stories in both the Online Contest and the appropriate print BIB contest.

Best of the Best: General Excellence

Last year, SABEW launched the Best of the Best category,  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 receive all of the winning entries. The Best of the Best judges, made up of top business journalists, SABEW past presidents and Distinguished Service Award winners, will single out only those entries that rise far above the competition.

Best of the Best winners will not be announced until the Best in Business ceremony at the 2010 Annual Conference, scheduled for March 19-21, 2010, at SABEW’s new headquarters at the Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University in Phoenix.

General Excellence Requirements:

To ensure that judges see a representative sample of your newspaper, follow these contest requirements.

Daily Newspapers

Each daily newspaper entering the General Excellence contest must submit its publication for three mandatory dates in 2009:

Tuesday, March 10

Sunday, June 7 (If your paper does not publish on Sunday, submit Saturday or Monday instead.)

Thursday, Nov. 12

In addition, each daily newspaper entering General Excellence must choose three “Editor’s Choice” dates during 2009 to submit:

Day 1: Monday section or Tuesday section

Day 2: Any Friday or Saturday edition

Day 3: Another Sunday section (If your paper does not publish on Sunday, submit Saturday or Monday instead.)

Daily Newspaper General Excellence entries may also include one business-related special section published during 2009.

Note: Page 1, or other sections of the newspaper, are eligible to be included with the General Excellence entry, provided the stories ran on the same day as sections being entered. An optional one-page nomination letter may also be included, in pdf format.

Weekly Newspapers

Each weekly newspaper entering the General Excellence contest must submit its publication from on or between these three mandatory dates in 2009:

Sunday, 01/18/92009- Saturday, 01/24/2009

Sunday, 06/07/2009 – Saturday, 06/13/2009.

Sunday, 11/08/2009 – Saturday, 11/14/2009

In addition, each weekly newspaper entering the General Excellence contest must include two “Editor’s Choice” dates. These can be any other weeks during calendar year 2009.

Weekly newspaper General Excellence entries may also include one special section published during 2009.

Magazines

Each magazine entering the General Excellence contest must submit the publication’s first issue published in May 2009 or the first issue published AFTER May 2009.

In addition, each magazine entering the General Excellence contest must include two additional “Editor’s Choice” dates. These can be any other issues during calendar year 2009.

General Excellence Entry Fees

The fee for each General Excellence contest entry is as follows:

Daily Newspaper, Small: $115 – (pay $105 on or before Jan. 13)

Daily Newspaper, Medium: $155 – (pay $140 on or before Jan. 13)

Daily Newspaper, Large: $195 – (pay $170 on or before Jan. 13)

Daily Newspaper, Giant: $230  — (pay $210 on or before Jan. 13)

Weekly – $155 (pay $140 on or before Jan. 13)

Magazine, Small: $155 – (pay $140 on or before Jan. 13)

Magazine, Giant: $230 – (pay $210 on or before Jan. 13)

General Excellence Questions?

For questions about General Excellence, contact Beth Hunt at bzhunt@bizjournals.com or 704.973.1072; or Warren Watson at watson.sabew@asu.edu or 602-496-7862