BOP Television Judging Underway

ST. PETERSBURG, FL (February 23, 2009) – Judging in the National Press Photographers Associations annual Best Of Photojournalism competition’s Television categories is now underway at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

On Sunday the judges picked winners in the categories of Team, Documentary, Sports Features, and Deadline.

Winning videos will be posted on Poynter’s Web site daily as the judging continues throughout this week.

And there will be a live, daily online chat with the judges at 12:00 noon EST, hosted by Poynter’s Al Tompkins. Viewers will be able to ask the judges questions, and to hear what they love and dislike about the entries they’ve seen that day.

The online chat and the winning videos by category are online here.

In the Team Entry category, first place was Rob Collet and Chencho Flores of KTUL-TV in Tulsa for “A day in the Life of Animal Control.” Second place was Eric Geddy and Brad Swagger of KMSP-TV in Minneapolis for “A Link to the Lost. And third place was Darren Durlach and Stan Heist of WBFF-TV in Baltimore for “Ball of Fury.” Honorable mention was awarded to Anne Herbst and Dave Delozier of KUSA-TV in Denver for “Emma’s Class.”

In the Sports Features category, first place was William Middeke of KARE-TV in Minneapolis for “Not Your Kids League.” Second place was Jim Douglas of KARE-TV for “Courage to Sail On.” Third place was Anne Herbst of KUSA-TV in Denver for “Defined by Seconds.” And honorable mentions were given to Scott Jensen of KTUU-TV in Anchorage for “Back Where She Belongs … In The Mountains,” and Michael DelGiudice of WNBC-TV in New York for “A Bump in the Road.”

In the Deadline category, first place was Ernesto Torres of KHOU-TV in Houston for “Live or Die.” Second place was John Doung of WNDU-TV in South Bend, IN, for If Only for an Hour.” Third place was Michael DelGiudice of WNBC-TV in New York for “You Call This A Stadium.” And an honorable mention was awarded to Everett McEwan of KWGN-TV in Denver for “Homeowners Worst Nightmare.”

In the Documentary category the judges did not award a first place or second place winner. Third place went to Dave Wertheimer and Shawn Montano of KWGN-TV in Denver for “Journey of Hope,” and an honorable mention was given to Jay Jennings, Clay Johnson, and Laura Riddle of WRAL-TV in Raleigh for “The Other North Carolina.”

Best Of Photojournalism judges for the Television categories this year include returning BOP TV contest chair Merry Murray, a photojournalist for KSNW-TV in Wichita, KS; Ram Guzman of KTVT-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth, TX, the BOP contest chair for the TV Editing categories; Terry Bulger of WSMV-TV in Nashville, TN; Brad Ingram of WGHP-TV in High Point, NC; Scott Jensen of KTUU-TV in Anchorage, AK; Jon Knorr of KOMO-TV in Seattle, WA; Terry Lovell, a freelance television editor in Raleigh, NC; Shane McEachern, of WTXF-TV in Philadelphia, PA; and Tom Sharkey, of WWSB-TV in Sarasota, FL.

Their full bios and headshots are online at the bottom of the page here.

The Best Of Photojournalism is sponsored by Canon, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, and the National Press Photographers Association.

The judges live daily Blog, including updated winners, is online here.

The winning videos are online here.

A message from Russ Kendall, Director, NPPA Region 11

New Region 11 Web site

It’s hard not to feel somewhat powerless in these crazy, dark times of change and decline. In the best-case scenario our jobs have changed, likely not for the better. In the worst case, we’ve lost our jobs. This malaise affects us all.

So much of what’s happening to our jobs and our lives is out of our control, in the hands of people whose shoes probably cost more than what most of us make in a week. The threat of ‘more and worse’ hangs ever over our heads like a Damoclean sword. Remember last year’s call to do more with less? Now it feels as if we’re being asked to do even more with nothing at all.

So what can we do about it?

We can focus on the good work we’re still able to do. We can take pride in conducting ourselves like the professionals we are. We can love and cherish our families and our friends.

We can also communicate better with each other, share job and freelance info, news about the Region, blow off some steam by commiserating with each other over our shared pain. Heck, there might even be some good news to share about awards won, great pictures made, projects completed, trips taken, college degrees earned.

The Region 11 website should be a conduit for frequently updated information to pass back and forth in all directions. It should provide a way for visual journalists in Anchorage to communicate with those in Portland and Seattle and Spokane and Vancouver and Yakima and Bend and every other big and little town in the great Pacific Northwest and beyond. Here in Bellingham, we desperately want to know what’s going on in our region. And there’s stuff we want to share with you.

But how?

To that end, TJ Mullinax, Associate Director of Region 11, Mikael Kjellström, our Webmaster, and I have been working for months on a redesign of this Web site, www.nppa11.org. We wanted to make the site more interesting, more helpful, and more important than before.

Besides including a constantly updated newsfeed, we hope to post the portfolios of the 2008 Region 11 Still and Video Photographers of the Year. We’re thinking about creating a place where people can advertise their unwanted gear as well as a regional “Find a Photographer” service. We hope to create a Region 11 blog. We also plan to create a video library of speakers and workshops. We’re going to be interviewing and writing about Region 11 members, posting video from those interviews.

So please, take a couple minutes to take a quick look around the site. Let me know what you like, what you don’t like, what we need to add and what we need to remove. The new site is not quite ready, and there’s much more to be done, so think of this as a soft launch with all of you as the beta testers.

Together we’re better and stronger. Let’s start the regional conversation.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Russ Kendall
Director, NPPA Region 11
Co-director, Bellingham Visual Journalism Conference
Picture editor, Bellingham Herald
russkendall@aol.com

Quarterly TV Contest 3rd Quarter 2008

Region 11

Spot News

(no winners awarded)

General News

1st

Zac Gooch, KTUU/Anchorage, AK: “Jack Goes to the White House”

2nd

Carolyn Hall, KTUU/Anchorage, AK: “It’ll be a Tough Fight”

3rd

Scott Jensen, KTUU/Anchorage, AK: “Just Another Nine-Eleven”

48 Hour Feature

1st

Joshua Godfrey, KHQ/Spokane, WA: “Pine Bowl”

2nd

Douglas Pigsley, KOMO/Seattle , WA: “Gary’s Wish”

3rd

Ryan Coe, KHQ/Spokane, WA: “Camp Goodtimes”

HM

Zac Gooch, KTUU/Anchorage, AK: “Griz Lights Up the Night”

In Depth

1st

Scott Jensen, KTUU/Anchorage, AK: “Not Where I Belong”

2nd

Kurt Austin, KGW/Portland, OR: “J.R.”

3rd

Steven Douglas, KING/Seattle, WA: “G-Unit”

HM

Kenneth McCormick, KGW/Portland, OR: “The Universal Language”

Ice Storm Extends BOP Entry Deadline

DURHAM, NC (February 4, 2009) – Because of the ice storm that left much of Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, and southern Indiana without power for several days, many photojournalists were not able to complete their entries for the National Press Photographers Association’s 2009 Best Of Photojournalism competition.

So the NPPA BOP Contest Committee has decided to extend the entry deadline for the Still Photography, Web, and Photo Editing categories until Sunday, February 8, at 12:00 midnight EST.

Please visit bop.nppa.org to enter.

For additional information contact BOP contest coordinator Thomas Kenniff at contests@nppa.org.

from nppa.org

Belo Corp. Cutting 500

DALLAS, TX (January 30, 2009) – Blaming the “persistent” decline in advertising revenues in the newspaper industry and all media, and citing a “significant cost initiative” to preserve cash, A.H. Belo Corporation chief executive officer Robert Decherd today said that as many as 500 more jobs will be cut across the company.

Belo owns the Northwest television stations KING in Seattle Wash., KGW in Portland, Ore., Northwest Cable News, The Dallas Morning News and the Denton Record-Chronicle in Texas, the Providence Journal in Rhode Island, and The Press-Enterprise in California.

Decherd also said the company will make immediate moves to generate cash internally as well as take steps to preserve the cash Belo has on hand.

Some of these steps include suspending the Belo Savings Plan match for employees for 2009, preserving about $5.5 million in cash for the company annually, and reducing the amount the company reimburses employees monthly for wireless devices to $35, saving about $200,000 for the year.

Free parking is also gone for Dallas employees. Beginning May 1, Belo employees who park in company-owned lots will be charged $40, and those who park in the Belo Building’s lot will see their parking fees increase from $40 to $70 monthly.

In a bit of possible foreshadowing of what may yet come, Decherd told Belo employees in a memo today that while other newspapers have announced pay cuts and unpaid furloughs that he believes that “these actions are not best for A.H. Belo at this time” – and yet “we recognize that all means of preserving cash need to be explored.”

from nppa.org

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Goes Up For Sale

SEATTLE, WA (January 9, 2008) – The Seattle Post-Intelligencer went up for sale today, but most of the people in and around Seattle who were watching TV news knew about it last night – long before Hearst bothered to tell P-I employees today.

Thursday afternoon KING-TV 5, the Seattle NBC affiliate owned by Belo Corp., started reporting that Hearst was going to sell or close the Post-Intelligencer.

“They stuck with that story and topped the 6 o’clock news with it, they didn’t back off,” a Seattle photojournalist told News Photographer magagzine today, “even though no one at either newspaper seemed to know anything about it. They said they had ‘an unnamed source close to the deal,’ which made everyone think maybe Belo had something to do with it.”

Which apparently wasn’t the case, because around noon today Pacific time the newspaper’s staff was summoned to a closed meeting with publisher Roger Oglesby and Hearst Newspaper president Steve Swartz, the Seattle Times reports, where they were told that the company has started a 60-day process of finding a buyer.

If no buyer is found, Hearst’s options include going Web-only with a greatly reduced staff, or shutting the doors completely, employees learned.

Swartz told the gathering that under no circumstances would the Post-Intelligencer continue “in printed form” under their ownership.

“The way this all came about is only part of the theater of the absurd surrounding the P-I,” the Seattle photojournalist said today. “Hearst didn’t even bother to tell their own people first that the newspaper was dead. They told someone else first, and it was on television.”

The newspaper has been published daily since 1863, and is the state’s oldest. Hearst has owned the newspaper since 1921. It’s been losing money since 2000.

Several reporters reporters and editors who were at the meeting told the Associated Press that both Oglesby and Swartz, along with Post-Intelligencer executives, refused to take questions about the announcement. Lincoln Millstein, Hearst’s senior vice president for digital media, accompanied Oglesby and Swartz.

The Post-Intelligencer has been published in a joint operating agreement with The Seattle Times for 25 years, and the Times reports that their executives were not aware of the P-I’s plans before today’s announcement. In addition to the Post-Intelligencer, Hearst’s interest in the joint operating agreement is also for sale. The JOA was modified in 1999 to allow the Times to start publishing a morning paper.

“I’m stunned,” Seattle Times publisher Frank Blethen said when the news broke.

“The JOA structure is inefficient and has been a significant part of the deep losses experienced at both papers,” Blethen said in a company statement later in the day.

“Today’s surprise announcement that Hearst Corporation has put the Seattle P-I up for sale and will close it in 60 days if there is no buyer is a reflection of two realities: that structural changes, which began as far back as 2000, have made it impossible for cities to profitably support two newspapers; and, that the devastating recession in which we are mired has made it very hard for even a single metro paper to be profitable,” Blethen said.

“If the P-I does close and the JOA ends, it will enhance the chances that The Seattle Times can survive the recession even though our continued operation will require additional sacrifices by its employees and owners.”

“Absent the Blethen’s six generation commitment to journalism and the community, we would have given up long ago, Seattle Times COO and president Carolyn S. Kelly said.

“Even if the JOA ends, there’s no guarantee we’ll be successful, but it’s more likely this market can support one newspaper; it clearly couldn’t support two.”

In a statement released today, Hearst said that it has no interest in buying The Seattle Times and that no such acquisition is underway.

To add insult to injury for Post-Intelligencer employees today, some who openly cried during the meeting as they heard the news, The Virginian-Pilot reports that Hearst is among an handful of companies and millionaires who are donating huge sums to pay for the commissioning of the new aircraft carrier, the George H.W. Bush.

Hearst Communications Inc. has given $100,000 of the $4 million raised by The Navy League of the United States of Hampton Roads, VA, for the new ship. The money will be used to pay for enhancements to such features as the ship’s chapel, library, ceremonial quarter deck, and a “tribute room” that’s in honor of the ship’s namesake. While the carrier itself was built with taxpayer money, the commissioning ceremony along with certain amenities are traditionally funded by private donations such as the one from Hearst.

Other donors include AT&T, Northrop Grumman Corp., PMX Industries, Faircount Media, and several wealthy individuals.

from nppa.org

December 2008 Clip Contest Winners

The December winners of the regional digital clip contest. Links to the winners appear below.

Remember the the January contest is now open for entries! Entries will be accepted through the end of February 7th (local midnight). Enter now!

• Spot News

  1st

  “Submerged Truck”

  John Wagner / Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

  2nd

  “Trooper Back Ride”

  Kai-Huei Yau / Tri-City Herald

  3rd

  “Wrong Way”

  Alan Berner / Seattle Times

  –

• General News

  1st

  “Military Mom”

  Kathryn Stevens / The Wenatchee World

  2nd

  “Child of War”

  Dan Bates / The Herald (Everett)

  3rd

  “Teeing Off”

  Andrew Sawyer / Yakima Herald-Republic

  –

• Feature/Single Picture

  1st

  “Chihuahua Putting”

  John Wagner / Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

  2nd

  “Dammitt runs to master”

  Peter Haley / The News Tribune/Tacoma

  3rd

  “Moose and Frost”

  Marc Lester / Anchorage Daily News

  –

• Feature/Multiple Picture

  1st

  “Farm Dreams”

  Dan Bates / The Herald (Everett)

  2nd

  “Razor Clamming at Copalis Beach”

  Alan Berner / Seattle Times

  3rd

  “Trafficked10”

  Zachary Kaufman / The Columbian

  –

• Sports

  1st

  “Loss”

  Sara Gettys / Yakima Herald Republic

  2nd

  “Ear Pull”

  Eric Engman / The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

  3rd

  “Hockey Hit”

  Ric Ernst / The Province

  –

• Illustration

  1st

  “Perfect Pet Sitter”

  Dan Bates / The Herald (Everett)

  2nd

  “Military Suicide”

  Robin Loznak / The News-Review

  3rd

  “Travis Snider”

  Andy Rogers / Seattle Post-Intelligencer