ELIGIBILITY: Best in Business is open to regular members of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in good standing as of the date of entry.
Regular membership is defined by SABEW’s constitution and bylaws, particularly Article III. (View at https://sabew.org/about/constitution-and-bylaws.)
Good standing means SABEW received your membership dues and your membership is current as of the date you submit your entries. Check membership status at your member profiles: https://membership.sabew.org/membership/profile.
For entries with more than one byline, one person must be a SABEW member in good standing.
Direct membership questions to sabew@sabew.org.
INSTITUTIONS: Entering journalists must be listed on the institutional membership rolls before entering.
Please note: The person managing contest entries will need to either be a member with his or her own login information or have access to log in information for his or her institution.
FREELANCERS: SABEW members who are freelancers may enter the contest but need to email BIB@sabew.org to set up online entry.
SIZE CATEGORIES: Print publications have been assigned size categories based on Alliance for Audited Media figures provided by the Newspaper Association of America. For daily newspapers and magazines, print five-day averages are used.
DEADLINES: Contest entries for all divisions and categories will be accepted online only, using the BIB entry forms at sabew.org. Entry period begins at 12:01 a.m. EST on Dec. 1, 2015, and ends at midnight EST on Jan. 27, 2016.
MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS: The same story or package may be entered in no more than two categories (Exception: stories submitted as part of General Excellence categories do not count toward the maximum allowance). Each entry must be made separately and a separate entry fee will be charged. You may submit more than one entry in the same category.
PAYMENT: Unless prior arrangements are made with SABEW, payment must be made by VISA, MasterCard, Discover or American Express through the secure BIB contest system. Payment must be received for an entry to be judged.
Please note: When submitting multiple entries, the contest system does allow you to leave payment until all entries have been submitted.
REFUNDS: If fewer than three entries are received for any category, that category will not be judged. Entrants will be offered two options: 1) entries will be added to the pool of entries of the next-highest circulation or unique-Web-page-visits category, if there is one; or 2) the entrant will receive a refund of the entry fee.
JUDGING: Each category will be judged by a panel of business journalists who will award one winner and up to two finalists. No finalists will be named in categories with fewer than 10 entries. Up to one finalist will be named in categories with 10 to 20 entries. Up to two finalists will be named in categories with more than 20 entries.
HOW JUDGES WERE SELECTED: Prominent business journalists and journalism educators are selected by the Best in Business Contest Committee. Each category is judged by a panel of at least three judges, including a head judge. To avoid conflicts of interest, judges do not decide on categories in which they have submitted entries. Judges’ decisions are final.
NOTIFICATION AND RECOGNITION OF WINNERS: All finalists will be notified in March 2016, and a list of finalists will be posted on sabew.org by the end of March. Winners will be officially announced during the SABEW spring conference in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 2016.
(updated 12/07/2015)
