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Calling for entries

Advertising/Circulation Ideas Contest Rules & Entry Information

It is contests time in Tennessee. We are calling for advertising, circulation and digital entries to show off your creative ideas and for the chance to win those bragging rights! Enter your best work in the advertising/circulation Ideas Contest today.

The deadline is Monday, March 13, 2023.

Contact Robyn Gentile, TPA member services manager with questions at rgentile@tnpress.com.

Deadline extended to March 10 for 2023 Tennessee State Press Contests

link to entry rules brochure

The online entry portal at www.betterbnc.com is open.

Announcing the call for entries in the 2023 University of Tennessee -Tennessee Press Association Tennessee State Press Contests.  The deadline has been extended to Friday, March 10, 2023 at 10:59 p.m. CST.

The Board of Directors adopted changes at its Fall meeting and subsequently a few more by a ballot vote in December.

The changes are:

The divisions in which entrants compete are frozen to the 2022 divisions, which were based on 2021 circulation.   The Contests Committee is examining ways that divisions could be determined in the future.   

The Board of Directors approved a temporary measure to allow any online members to compete in Group Four, with the option of choosing to compete up in Group Five.  

Changes to categories include the elimination of the Covid News and Covid Features categories.

Changes to the way content will be entered was made.  All entries will be digital as PDFs or links to material on websites, depending upon the entry requirements of the category.    Sunday Editions, Best Special Issue or Section and Make-Up and Appearance will no longer require physical tearsheet entries and will instead be submitted as PDFs.

Links to stories on websites will be allowed in many of the categories and are denoted in the rules.  

If there is a question of eligibility, the date the item first appears whether online or in print, is the day of publication.

TPA Winter Convention set Feb. 22-23

Go to convention page

Plans have been made for the 2023 Tennessee Press Association Winter Convention to be held Feb. 22-23 in Nashville. The event will be held at the Holiday Inn and Suites located in Downtown Nashville at 415 4th Avenue South.

TPA will hold a reception on Wednesday to which all members of the General Assembly will be invited. Students from collegiate journalism programs will be invited to attend Thursday’s convention programming and the luncheon. A grant from the Tennessee Press Association Foundation will sponsor the student participation.

Contact Robyn Gentile, TPA member services manager, with questions at rgentile@tnpress.com.

Ideas Contest Awards announced, Southern Standard takes Best of Show

The Tennessee Press Association (TPA) announced the 2022 Ideas Contest awards on Thursday, Oct. 20, during the virtual Revenue Summit for newspaper advertising and circulation staff members.

There were 487 entries from 23 newspapers in the 2022 contest, which has four circulation divisions and 41 categories. TPA partnered with the Hoosier State Press Association for the judging, which resulted in 240 awards.

The 2022 Ideas Contest Best of Show was awarded to the Southern Standard of McMinnville for its multi-color ad for “Patriot Day.”

The First Runner-up was awarded to the Kingsport Times News for its niche publication—a coffee table book “Celebrating 50 Years of Bays Mountain.” 

The Second-Runner-up was awarded to the Johnson City Press for its self-promotion ad “People love good news” a promotion for the newspaper’s app.

The newspaper with the most awards is The Greeneville Sun with 35 awards, followed by the Kingsport Times News with 21 and the farragutpress with 19.

List of 2022 winning entries

http://tnpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Ideas-Contest-Winners-2022-revised-Final.xls

Slideshow of 2022 winning entries

http://tnpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IDEAS_2022_Powerpoint_FINAL.pdf

2022 State Press Contests Awards presented

Congratulations to all of the 2022 winners for your outstanding work!

Link to excel file with winners, captions, comments and credits

Sate Press Contests Awards Luncheon photos.  The awards were presented on August 26 in Nashville by Dr. Carrie Castille, Senior Vice Chancellor and Senior Vice President for the UT Institute of Agriculture. Photographs by Donn Jones, Donn Jones Photography.

2022 competitors by division. Want to know which newspapers your staff competed with? Check this report out.

TPA thanks the University of Tennessee System for the 82-year partnership on the Tennessee State Press Contests.

UT System, Tennessee Press Association Announce 2022 Newspaper Contest Winners
Awards Luncheon was held at the Sheraton Music City Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee

Newspaper publishers, editors, writers and designers won top awards today, Friday, August 26, 2022, in the Tennessee Press Association’s 2022 newspaper contest co-sponsored by the University of Tennessee System, which has been a part of the annual event since 1940.

The Tennessean (Nashville), Kingsport Times-News, The Nashville Ledger, The Standard Banner (Jefferson City) and Brownsville Press won the top general excellence awards in their respective divisions at the association’s ceremony, held in Nashville, Tennessee. Points were awarded for each entry, and general excellence honors were based on the newspaper’s total points in their division.

The Tennessean won 14 first-place awards. The Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Kingsport Times-News each received seven first-place awards. The Johnson City Press won six first-place awards.

As part of the annual contest, newspapers winning first-place awards in the categories of editorials, best single editorial, and public service will receive $250 prizes from UT’s Edward J. Meeman Foundation. The Tennessean and the Kingsport Times-News swept the awards for their divisions, winning in all three categories.

The Meeman Foundation was established in 1968 at UT to fund the contest, provide professional critiques of journalists’ work, and support journalism students and educators.

“Our long partnership with TPA reflects our shared commitment to education and accountability to all Tennesseans,” said Carrie L. Castille, UTIA senior vice chancellor and senior vice president, who presented the awards at the ceremony. “We’re grateful to be able to work with TPA to make that happen.”

“These annual press awards by the Tennessee Press Association show our commitment to the communities we serve,” said Jack McNeely, president of the Tennessee Press Association. “They also recognize the outstanding work and dedication of our newsroom staffs across the Volunteer State.”

“These awards recognize exceptional work in all three divisions of the state and at news organizations of all sizes,” said Alison Gerber, chair of the TPA Contests Committee. “Tennesseans are fortunate to have had working journalists covering their communities.  Congratulations to the winners.”

Reciprocal judging is done with another state’s association. This year, the Hoosier State Press Association of Indiana judged 1,130 entries from 67 of the Tennessee Press Association’s 133 member newspapers.

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