do-it-yourself public relations

(Please, don't read this as look-what-I-did but as a narration of this-is-one-of-the-central-issues-in-my-life-this-week.)

Today my job is to write articles and press releases about what I did on Saturday for my paper, my hometown paper, my grandparents' paper and the college.

Here's what I've got for my paper (censored for security purposes):

Ariel ***, editor of the ***, received six awards at the South Dakota Newspaper Association's (SDNA) annual Better Newspaper Contest in Vermillion on Saturday.

The SDNA named *** its 2006 Outstanding Young Journalist among weekly newspapers. The award goes to an individual 30 years old or younger based upon their work in writing, photography and/or layout.

*** also received a first-place award for best news story, second place awards for best local column and best spot news photo, and third place awards for best humor column and best feature photo.

The awards were given for work *** completed as a reporter and photographer for the *** and the ***, sister papers to the ***.

--30-- (That means the end in newsspeak)

It was a long, long, long day -- the awards are spread out over a luncheon and a supper for goodness only knows why. I got to spend a good two hours out on the campus green reading in the sunshine, and several hours making small talk with my cohorts at our sister papers.

The Outstanding Young Journalist was the only award I really wanted. Part of this is because it is the category with the least competition -- there probably weren't even five people applying for it. If I couldn't win that in such a small state as South Dakota, there's not much hope for anything in the Iowa association awards. And it will look very nice on a resume, especially if they don't know how few choices the SDNA actually had for bestowing the title. :) When I went up to receive it, my co-worker stood up applauding and soon everyone was standing up. It was mortifying. :) For goodness' sake -- I turned in about one thing I was even proud of. (I like having the award but I hate getting it!)

The other awards were each surprising in their own way -- I was surprised to see which of my entries weren't recognized and which were. My favorite photo, a dead ringer, was third to some fires. Fires swept the feature photos. My first place news story was crap -- I would have torn it apart if a Beacon writer gave it to me. The columns received pretty accurate critique, I believed.

What twirked me off, though, was the second-place news photo. What twirked me wasn't that it was given second (I'd give it third) but which photo beat it out. It was a basketball photo! And what's really irritating isn't that basketball won the news category but that the SAME PHOTO also won in the sports photos. It says very explicitly in the rules that something cannot be entered in multiple categories.

Yes, I am complaining about awards. It was really a nice day, though. I can't say I learned a lot from people at other papers, but I have their winning stories to read through so that I can later. It was nice to hear at a session about ethics how people would handle deaths and accident photos and other scenarios. It was nice to sit down and share a meal with co-workers I rarely see. And it was nice to have something to add to my resume so early on in my possibly-brief journalism career.