National Headline Contest
Fame and a little bit of fortune await the winners of the American Copy Editors Society's annual headline contest.
The contest offers a total of $2,250 in cash prizes — $500 to the first-place individual in each of four professional divisions, and $250 to the student winner. A plaque or certificate is awarded to all award winners and runners-up, including each contributor in the staff category.
Categories
- Division I (individual): Newspapers with circulations of more than 250,000, and all non-newspaper entries
- Division II (individual): Circulations between 100,001 and 250,000
- Division III (individual): Circulations between 50,001 and 100,000
- Division IV (individual): Circulations of 50,000 or less
- Division V: Staff entries from publications of any size
- Student Division (individual): All student publications
Rules
What constitutes an entry
Divisions I, II, III, IV and Student: Three to five headlines written by a single person, with accompanying copy and art.
Division V: Eight to 10 headlines that represent the work of at least three headline writers working for a single publication, with accompanying copy and art.
Eligibility
- The contest is open to all headline writers working for English-language news publications.
- Headlines must have been published between Dec. 1, 2008, and Nov. 30, 2009.
Entry fees
- ACES members may submit one entry free in Division I, II, III or IV, with a $10 charge for each additional entry.
- To qualify for the member rate, the entrant must be a member at the time the entry is submitted. If you join or renew at the same time that you submit your entry or entries, you qualify for the member rate.
- Non-member entries in Divisions I, II, III and IV are $25 each.
- Division V entries are $50 each, regardless of membership status.
- Student entries are free.
Entry preparation
- Entry forms are available at http://www.copydesk.org/contests/headlines/headlinecontest.pdf.
- Entries should be submitted as high-quality photocopies or scans on standard letter-size paper (8½ inches by 11 inches). Do not send clips or tearsheets.
- You must submit copies of headlines as they appeared in print, or screen grabs in the case of online entries. Computer printouts from archives are not acceptable.
- Submit eight copies of each complete entry, with a copy of your entry form attached to the front of each one.
- Be sure to include Page 2 of the entry form with each copy of your entry if you are entering in Division V.
- You may reduce the size of your originals if necessary when copying or scanning. If the story text becomes too small to read because of reduction, the relevant portion may be reproduced at a larger size on a separate page.
- You need not include the complete text of a story — including the jump, if any — unless you consider it necessary to the judges' appreciation of your work, or because you specifically wish to include a jump head as part of the entry.
- A main headline and all headlines that accompany it — deck heads, jump heads, picture overlines, etc. — as part of a single package are considered one headline.
- If more than one headline is visible on a page, clearly indicate which one is being submitted for consideration. It generally is best to trim submissions so that surrounding material is not visible. If you wish to show the headline in the larger context of a page, you may submit a reduced reproduction of the page as supplementary material, on either the same sheet or another sheet.
- Entries may be oriented vertically or horizontally on each page. It's OK to mix the two within one entry. For horizontal pages, orient the top toward the right when assembling your entry, as this helps the judges.
- You may submit all or part of an entry in color if you wish, but this is not required. You may wish to use color if you want the judges to see the color in a photo or other art element, or if the headline itself is in color, but black and white is fine in most cases.
- Include your name and your publication's name on each page of individual entries. For staff entries, note the headline writer's name and your publication's name on each page. If you are submitting more than one entry, also include an identifying label such as "Portfolio A" or "Portfolio B" on each page and on each entry form.
- Staple each copy of your entry, including entry form.
- If you will owe a fee, attach a check (payable to ACES) or a credit card authorization form to the front of the top copy of your entry using a paper clip.
- Do not fold your entries. Place them flat in a manila envelope (9 inches by 12 inches), a shipping box or similar container.
Mailing address
Send entries to:
Carol DeMasters
ACES Administrator
7 Avenida Vista Grande Ste. B7 #467
Santa Fe, NM 87508
Deadline
Entries must be postmarked by Monday, Dec. 14, 2009.
Additional information
- Headlines submitted as part of an individual entry may also be included in a Division V staff entry.
- You may send multiple entries in a single envelope or box.
- You may write a single check or submit a single credit card form for multiple entry fees.
- ACES' tax number is 11-3390739.
- There is no limit to the number of entries in any category.
- Entries that do not conform to the preparation requirements may be disqualified.
- Any entry containing a headline that is in any way erroneous will be disqualified.
- Students who have been employed by professional publications, as interns or otherwise, may enter work performed while so employed in the appropriate professional category.
- Professionals who worked for more than one publication during the contest period may submit work from both as part of a single entry or separate entries, subject to the circulation limitations.
- "Circulation" refers to daily circulation for daily newspapers, weekly circulation for weeklies. the Audit Bureau of Circulations is the arbiter of print circulation figures for purposes of this contest.
- Publications outside the United States are eligible as long as they are published in English.
- Members of the ACES Executive Committee, employees of ACES and the administrators of the contest are ineligible.
Judging
- Each category will be reviewed by multiple judges considered experts in the field. The judges will be urged to consider the disparate circumstances under which various types of headlines are written. Entrants may include explanatory notes to the judges in this connection.
- One prize is offered in each category, although the judges may choose not to award a prize in a category if they determine that an insufficient number of entries has been received or that no entry is deserving of recognition.
- The judges also are empowered to award one "Award of Excellence," or honorable mention, in each category should they choose to do so.
- No ties will be allowed.
- The decisions of the judges will be final except under extraordinary circumstances. In such a case, the judges' decisions may be reviewed by the ACES Executive Committee, which is empowered to resolve any disputes and retains ultimate authority over the competition and awards.
Award ceremony
Results will be announced at the ACES national conference in Philadelphia in April 2009.