Send entries to national chairperson:
Mark Edelson
The Best Use of Photography Quarterly Clip Contest is an attempt to recognize the individuals and publications that identify and encourage excellence in photojournalism and reward that work with effective usage on the pages of their publications.
The use of photography is a complex process involving many steps along the way to excellence. Picture selection, photographer coaching and page design are but a few of the steps in the process. In some cases this is done by one individual and in others the work involves many individuals. Entrants are encouraged to include the names and positions or responsibilities of all who significantly participate in producing the pages.
Entries for each quarter should be received by the national contest chairperson by the 15th day of the month they are due.
Month of publication and deadline for receipt of entries by the chairperson:
| Month of publication | Deadline |
|---|---|
| January, February, March | April 15 |
| April, May, June | July 15 |
| July, August, September | October 15 |
| October, November, December | January 15 |
The contest is open to all NPPA and Kappa Alpha Mu members in good standing. Only one person on a team entry needs to be an NPPA member.
The first three categories have self-evident titles; they include single pages containing subject matter relating to news, sports or features.
The Picture Page category is a single, one-subject page that tells a story or gives a photographic impression of an event or subject. (True double-trucks may be entered as a single page, provided they are designed that way.) Sometimes an additional column or unrelated story has been found on a picture page. Generally these entries remain in the picture page category. The contest chairperson will use judgment in this case, but will favor the wishes of the entering publication.
The Multi-Page category has no subdivisions along subject matter: Any entry more than one page belongs in this category.
A single page from a Multi-Page category also may be entered in the single categories. However, single-page entries cannot be entered twice. For example, a layout on weight-lifting cannot be entered in both the sports and the feature categories. No more than 10 entries per publication are permitted in any one category.
Only unmounted tear sheets can be entered. Multi-page, non-contiguous tear sheets should be taped together in the order you want judges to view them. Special editions or sections can be entered intact.
Each entry should have a clearly marked tag on the back, including the following information:
Entries should be separated by category.
For instance, all news pages should be in one folder (or envelope) with the category name clearly marked; all multi-page entries in another; etc.
All category envelopes/folders should be sent together in one larger envelope.
Points will be awarded during each quarter as follows:
Winning entries and standings will be posted on the NPPA Web site each quarter. The publication that has accumulated the most points at the end of a calendar year will be declared the winner of that year's contest.
WINNERS WILL BE ASKED TO PROVIDE .PDF FILES OF WINNING ENTRIES WITHIN A WEEK OF NOTIFICATION OF WINNING. It is strongly urged that winning publications provide the .PDF files. The success of this contest - both as a professional and educational tool - is dependent on the timely display of winning entries on the NPPA Web site. Use of .PDF files of newspaper pages will both speed up that process and provide higher quality displays than are possible by photographing the newsprint pages themselves. (If a publication cannot provide a .PDF file, the original newsprint entry will be reproduced.)
It is understood that any copyright of an entry remains the property of the publication and/or the original copyright holder. However, all participants agree that by entering the contest, entrants give permission to NPPA for its regional and national publications to reproduce winning entries, either through hard copy or electronically, including and not limited to, regional publications, News Photographer magazine, commercial online services and NPPA presences on the Internet. Reasonable precautions will be taken to ensure the security of electronic reproduction.
