Gabriella Bruni

My vote goes to WTVF out of Nashville. Their spot news entries were very impressive in that the crews were there as the stories broke and captured all the emotion. Across the board, from hard to soft, the stories were consistent and well told.

Our runner-up was WBFF out of Baltimore. Lots of team effort with breaking stories, working in very tough environments. Shows adaptability on the part of the crews. The piece on the store closing was very touching.

Andre Jones

Why oh why did WTVF-TV not enter in more categories? Bad mistake. I was very impressed with the variety of their stories. Some stations had the same style and tone on every story whether it was spot news or a feature. WTVF-TV you rock, but please send your reporter that did the fire story to the Poynter Institute. He needs to learn how to write with the video not to the video. It was also nice to look at the air check and see the same consistency from WTVF-TV. WBFF-TV and KUSA-TV where tied for second. We looked at the air check and saw that WBFF-TV had story after story, and KUSA-TV was into a lot of graphics. Sorry KUSA-TV, on that day WBFF-TV was more about visuals.

Rob Macey

Few stations stood out more to the judges than WTVF. WTVF impressed the judges for their overall commitment to excellence in photojournalism. WBFF had many good examples of feature related stories and excellent storytelling. However, WTVF's unique story selection and creative commitment to each story made them emotional and memorable especially, considering their smaller photo staff size. "Nursing Home Fire" captured spot news with powerful emotion, storyline and technique.

WTVF's Features were filled with substance and compelling moments of happiness and sadness within the stories. "Mailman Jack" had unpredictable moments, also very nice teamwork. They mastered the art of developing surprises by using creative writing, photography and editing. Surprises were ranked high. Many entries lacked this. Teamwork was evident in WTVF's entry. Other stations will learn a thing or two from WTVF.

The finalists still demonstrated creative stories. However, consistency played a major part in the judge's decision making. Of the TV stations listed as finalists, few showed examples of uniqueness as well as surprise within stories.

Bill Masure

WTVF won this category from start to finish. The Spot News entries had excitement, suspense and emotion. The visuals complimented the track, some of the images haunting.

The stories entered in the Deadline Category kept the momentum going. A story from Iraq and a local look at some crazy swamp guys boating through a flood both stuck in my memory.

The Sports, Feature, and In-Depth categories all contained stories done not just with good shooting and sound gathering technique, but with sensitivity and heart.

According to the station's info sheet, only one of the stories on this entry took more than three days to put together. The staff shoots stories to fill about 15 hours of news a week, in addition to another 15 hours of locally produced shows, all this with about half the staff of the bigger markets. To me, that made a difference here.

Robert Nino

This is the category I was most interested in judging. My criteria for judging included consistency/depth, technique, and newsworthiness. The winner WTVF had it all; while individual stories from larger markets were stronger, WTVF consistently delivered more than expected. The spot news was a quality mix of information and images. Feature entry "Mailman Jack" was a caring portrayal of the connection Jack has with the community he has served for over twenty years. The technique fit the story, creating an emotional tie for me. I was then very impressed after viewing the aircheck. The philosophy matched their daily performance.

My personal favorite, KCNC, had timely (spot, deadline, general) entries that mirrored their features efforts. The features were art with beautiful pictures, information and personalization. In particular the "Fire Bomber" a collaboration was consistent across the board. I felt like I understood all the messages in the stories better than the other entries. I enjoyed the informational content as well.