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.

Russ Kendall

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