Greetings, fellow Arizona journalists.

Change is sweeping through the newspaper and magazine industries. It hasn’t been an easy time. But the board of directors at Arizona Press Club knows your pursuit of outstanding journalism did not fade. Now here’s your chance to earn some significant recognition for all of your hard work: our annual contest honoring the best of Arizona print journalism in 2008.

Check out the rules and print your entry forms below. Some things to note this year include:

·                           The explanation of the rules is divided into four areas: writing, design, photography and magazine, so you can go directly to the category you will most likely enter. In some cases, explanations of generally applicable rules are repeated in two or more areas to make sure everyone has an opportunity to read them.

·                           Online-only publications are welcome to enter the contest, as long as the sites are based in Arizona and primarily devoted to producing news stories and commentaries that follow generally accepted journalistic standards and principles. Online-only publications should enter in the “C” category, as the “B/non-metro” category is limited to smaller newspapers and work published on their affiliated Web sites.

·                           As for that “B/non-metro category” … we made the difficult to decision to put all non-daily newspapers, or dailies with a circulation of 20,000 or less, into a single category rather than try to split the small papers into two groups. As always, any journalist is welcome to enter a “C” category, no matter what the size of their paper. We strongly encourage larger weekly papers to enter the “C” category.

·                           A variety of categories from past years have been combined or dropped so the contest truly rewards only the highest quality of journalism. Since most clips can be entered only in one category, please read the new descriptions closely.

·                           The annual awards banquet is 6 p.m. Saturday, May 16, 2009, at ASU Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Comm., 555 N. Central Ave., Phoenix. http://cronkite.asu.edu/

Entries must be received at our Post Office box in Phoenix by Jan. 31, 2009, unless special arrangements are made before that date with contest chairman Le Templar (ltemplar@evtrib.com). Le can also answer questions about a specific rule or category descriptions.

Good luck!

Sarah Fenske

President

Arizona Press Club