Front Page Awards Competition Announced
Honoring the ‘Best of the Best’ Created by WBNG Members in 2014
(Feb. 13, 2015) “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” That long-ago cry of newsboys hawking papers in city streets applies equally well to “reading all about it” in the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild’s Front Page Awards competition.
The Front Page Awards honor the “best of the best” in writing, photography, commentary, graphics and union campaigns, all created by workers in WBNG-covered units. Former workers can enter, too. The point is if you created your work and it was published or posted on your employer’s web site, or both, in calendar 2014, it’s eligible for an award – and so are you.
The entry deadline is easy to remember: Postmarked or hand-delivered to the WBNG office, 1100 15th St. NW, Suite 350, Washington, DC 20005, by the Ides of March (Sunday, March 15). We won’t stab you, unlike the assassins who killed Julius Caesar that long ago day. We’ll just accept your entries.
The handy, printable entry form should be attached to each entry. Please specify the category in which your entry is being submitted, and please provide two copies of each entry. An entry can be submitted in more than one category.
Here are the categories:
Writing: Morton Mintz Award for Investigative Reporting or Public Service Reporting; Bernie Harrison Memorial Award for Commentary; News Analysis; Frank C. Porter Memorial Award for Labor and Business Reporting; Criticism; Feature Writing; Headline Writing; National or International News Reporting; Local News Reporting; Non-Daily Specialized Technical Reporting; Sports Reporting; Labor Unit Publication.
Photography: Feature Photography; Local News Photography; National News Photography; Portrait Photography; Sports Photography.
Graphics and Art: Advertising Design; Illustration Design; Labor Promotional Campaign; Marketing and Promotion Design; News Graphics Design; Web-Site Design.
There are two separate non-editorial Front Page Awards, one for Mobilizing and the other for the Customer Service Professional of the Year. Send in nominations for those by letter.
There are also three Grand Prizes, for which there are no separate entries: The Bill Pryor Memorial Grand Prize for Writing, the Bill Pryor Memorial Grand Prize for Photography and the John Albano Memorial Grand Prize for Art. The judges will select individual Grand Prize winners from among the winners of the individual Front Page Award categories.
A cash award will accompany the Grand Prizes. But there is an extra qualification to be in the running for a Grand Prize: You not only have to be among the individual winners to be eligible for those, you must also be a dues-paying WBNG member (hint, hint).
The Front Page ceremony will also honor members who performed distinguished and outstanding service for the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild during 2013, through our annual Guild Service Awards. Letters of recommendation should be submitted by Valentine’s Day. The Guild Service Awards are as follows: Dan de Souza Memorial Award for Member of the Year; Nadine Grinder Memorial Award for Shop Steward of the Year; Unit Officer of the Year; Organizer of the Year; Bargaining Unit of the Year; Herb Block Award forCommunity Service and the Connie Knox Memorial Award for Outstanding Service to the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild.
WBNG created the Knox Award in honor of the late Connie Knox, longtime WBNG President, WBNG vice president and International Chair of The Newspaper Guild. Connie died in 2012, just weeks after she retired from both her Guild post and the Baltimore Sun.
The Front Page Awards and Guild Service Awards will be formally presented to the winners at the WBNG General Membership meeting on July 22 at the AFL-CIO building in Washington.