Wednesday morning I finished the entries for our first of two yearly clip contests, sponsored by the Texas Association of Journalism Educators (www.taje.org).
Since we’ve not had a print issue since Jan. 31, I was concerned that we’d not have very many entries. The contest period runs from Jan. 1 to the deadline, on Saturday.
I wrote the taje.org director asking whether using the stories off our website is allowed. She thought it would be OK, then asked the contest director, who also said yes.
So, Sunday during slow times at my part-time job, I’d look at the website to decide which stories had the best chance of winning a first, second, third or honorable mention. Then on Tuesday night I looked at the many photos we have online and chose those I thought had the best chance of winning.
I finished Wednesday morning preparing the entries and received permission to go to the post office to mail them, overnight, to a journalism teacher in Houston who’s in charge of the contest.
We had lots of entries in many categories. I felt really proud to see the fine work that everybody has done, from news stories to features on people, and many excellent photos taken at the 9/11 ceremony, 16 de septiembre, Hispanic Festival, our trip to Texas State University, the Halloween contests and other events.
We also have a excellent successor to our long-time cartoonist, who graduated in May.
There are no categories for video or audio productions, but perhaps that will change one day.
Everybody has worked very hard, and I’m proud of how well everybody has done.
The other clip contest’s deadline is Feb. 15. That one is much tougher because only two entries are allowed in each category, and there is no category for cartoon strip.
We’ve always done well in both clip contests. I know we’ll have some more winners this year.