The contest committee has voted to make several changes ahead of the 2021 WNA Foundation Better Newspaper Contest, including the elimination of three daily categories and one daily circulation division. 

Before entering this year’s contest, please be sure to review the full list of rules and categories. Learn more about the contest, including information on deadlines, the submission period and how to access the portal, here.

Circulation Division Changes

The WNAF contest committee voted to adjust the circulation divisions this year to the following criteria:

The changes help to balance the contest across all divisions and address a growing disparity among the number of entries submitted by weeklies and dailies. Last year, there were 60% fewer entries submitted by daily contestants.

The weekly divisions received minor adjustments to address the growing number of smaller weekly newspapers in the state. Last year, Division F received 58% of all weekly submissions. With the contest committee’s adjustments, entries within each weekly division are expected to be nearly even.

New entry limits

To increase the diversity of winning entries and ensure submissions are being judged in the fairest way possible, the WNAF contest committee voted to add a rule governing the submission of identical entries across multiple categories, (e.g. submitting the same photo or ad across multiple categories).

Entries that are identical should not be submitted in more than one category. However, individual items that are part of a larger whole can be considered across multiple categories. For example, a photo included within a Photo Essay submission could also be entered in an individual photo category, such as Feature Photo, because the two entries would not be identical.

One exception to this rule is the Bill Payne Award. Entries in this category may be submitted in one additional advertising category.

If you’re not sure which category you should submit your entry under, let us know and we can help you figure it out. 

Eliminated categories

The following three categories have been eliminated for the daily divisions only.

• Best Opinion Pages
• All-Around Newspaper Photography
• Best Use of Local Photography

The decision to eliminate the categories was made due to low levels of participation — all three received fewer than five entries across the entire daily division for two consecutive years. The categories will remain open to weekly entrants because of higher participation among those contestants.

In 2019, the contest committee implemented a system in which categories with less than five entries across all daily or all weekly divisions for two consecutive years are considered for elimination.

Questions?

If you have any questions or feedback regarding this year’s contest categories, or if you need any help submitting entries, please contact Membership & Programming Specialist Jordan Schelling at jordan.schelling@wnanews.com.