2012 SUNSHINE STATE AWARDS

Submit your entries online: Deadline extended to Friday, March 16

SPJ’s South Florida Pro Chapter is pleased to announce the 18th annual Sunshine State Awards competition, open to all print, broadcast and online journalists in the state of Florida. The competition recognizes quality journalism in the best tradition of our profession. Out-of-state journalists will judge all entries and may award first-, second- and third-place honors in each category. Finalists will be notified in late April and winners will be announced at the annual Sunshine State Awards ceremony.

SPJ South Florida has also partnered with the Florida College Press Association to present the 2012 FCPA Awards. Florida college students may enter only the categories listed under Student Division on the Awards Categories page.

General Guidelines

All entries must have been published or broadcast in 2011. (Exception: judges will evaluate online entries in real time.)
The same item may be entered in multiple categories. (Each additional entry requires an additional fee.)
Comments (up to 100 words) may accompany each entry.
A complete list of divisions and categories appears on the Awards Categories page.

Submitting Your Entries

All entries in the 2012 Sunshine State Awards and 2012 FCPA Awards will be submitted electronically using a web-based program at betternewspapercontest.com. No hard-copy entries will be accepted.

The contest platform is optimized for Firefox for PC and Macintosh. Please have a recent version downloaded and installed for the best contest experience.

Below are directions for preparing and submitting your entries. If you have questions, contact Tim Dodson, contest administrator, at 305-562-5796 or tim@timdodson.com.

The entry deadline is Friday, March 16 at 5 p.m.

Login:

Go to betternewspapercontest.com.
In the top navigation bar click Contestant Login.
From the drop-down menu, select 2012 Sunshine State Awards/2012 FCPA Awards.
Select your News Organization.
If your organization is not listed OR if a user/password has already been assigned to another person, you may set up your own individual account using the “Open Call Contestant” feature (Click on “Open Contestant” in the top navigation, then follow the instructions to establish your own account), Open Call Contestants can make entries across all circulation groups as an independent journalist.
For preestablished Contestant accounts, enter your temporary password: bnc (lower case), and click Login. When you first login, the system will prompt you to create a secure password (one for each listed news organization).
The BetterBNC online contest platform is transitioning how user accounts are set up and accessed. You may be prompted to validate your email or update your account. Please follow the onscreen instructions when they appear.
Existing Contestant accounts will transition to become “Contestant Manager” and will be able to authorize others to make entries on behalf of your organization. Follow the onscreen instructions when prompted.

Submit Entries:

On the Manage Entries page, click Submit Entry (left side).
Select the appropriate Division (a larger grouping of categories).
Select the appropriate Category and complete the Headline/Title field. (For entries with multiple components, create a descriptive title or use “Collection,” if appropriate.)
Based on the type of entry, add your content:

To upload digital files (other than audio/video), click Choose File, navigate to the desired file, select Open, and click Upload. Allowed file types are PDF, DOC, TXT, JPG, GIF, and PNG. If more than one attachment is desired for this entry, repeat these steps.
To add web/audio/video content,copy and paste the content’s web address into the provided Web URL field. To host your content online, either upload it to a free hosting website (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) or talk to your IT person about adding it to your station’s website. Make sure the content will be accessible long enough to be viewed after the winners are announced in June; and does not require a login to access.Follow the reset of prompts to complete and submit your entry.
PRINT YOUR OFFICIAL ENTRY FORM for your records.

Payment:

Sunshine State Awards: Submit by March 9 and pay the regular rate of $33 per entry. SPJ Professional members receive one entry FREE.

FCPA Awards: Flat fee of $15 per entry for FCPA member schools and $25 per entry for all others. Enter by March 9.
NEW! We now accept credit card payments via Paypal. Once you have uploaded all of your entries, click below to pay.

Sunshine State Awards Regular Rate

FCPA Awards:
Member School Rate
Non-Member School Rate

We also accept payment by check, made payable to SPJ South Florida. Send your check, along with a copy of the Official Entry form for each entry it covers, to:

SPJ South Florida Pro Chapter
c/o Tim Dodson
780 NE 69th Street #807
Miami, FL 33138

If you are submitting one free entry as an SPJ Professional member, along with your online submission, you must mail in the Official Entry Form, noting “FREE ENTRY” and your personal SPJ membership number for proof of membership in good standing. Your membership number is available on your Quill magazine label or you may contact Linda Hall, the national SPJ Membership Coordinator at lindah@spj.org.