Extra: Plunging Circulation Numbers Injure Newspaper Awards

New York State newspaper association meets in Rochester, giving its members many many awards. D&C wins top honors in its class (as if by design).

One of the unheralded casualties of cascading newspaper circulation numbers appears to be the integrity of New York State’s foremost award contest for daily journalism. Every September, the New York State Associated Press Association (is there a proofreader in the house?) showers glory upon writers, photographers and graphic artists of its member newspapers as part of its statewide convention.

Some 240 awards (82 first-place, 80 second-place and 78 third-place prizes) were announced last month and bestowed on numerous employees of 34 newspapers last night in Rochester. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle accumulated ten regular awards (six firsts, one second and three thirds) as well as the "Newspaper of Distinction" honor in the 50,000-125,000 circulation class. D&C deputy editorial page editor Jane Sutter—who serves as NYSAPA president this year—brought home a first prize for editorials on education issues, while D&C reporter Sean Dobbin won the Mike Hendricks Young Journalist of the Year Award.

In a sign of the difficult times faced by daily newspapers across New York, only four newspapers divvied up the 45 awards for writing categories in the 25,000 -to-50,000 circulation class. One of those papers, the Watertown Daily Times actually had an audited daily circulation last year of 20,475—4,525 readers shy of the minimum standard for that judging class.

When asked to explain the discrepancy, contest organizer and AP New York Bureau Chief Howard Goldberg initially explained that because of shifts in newspaper audiences from print to online editions, the NYSAPA decided to use 2009 circulation figures for this year’s competition. Asked then why the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle won its writing awards this year in the 50,000—125,000 class when its 2009 daily circulation was 130,506, Mr. Goldberg retreated. He clarified that for this year’s contest classes NYSAPA “mostly stuck with the print circulation numbers we had used for last year’s contest.”

Mr. Goldberg did not elaborate. Nor did he respond when asked why the official contest rules failed to mention this deviation, nor, for that matter, how and when other participating papers were notified of the changes.

When the awards were announced on August 18, the Associated Press determined them newsworthy enough to send out a wire story nationwide. Likewise, eight of the 14 newspapers whose employees were honored for writing in the three least competitive circulation classes devoted newsprint to coverage of their own successes. None bothered to report the narrowness of the classes in which they competed.

At the Post-Star in Glens Falls, Editor Ken Tingley—who also serves on NYSAPA’s Board of Directors—announced his paper’s new honors in a blog post that cited 33 awards. A story soon followed (attributed to “staff”) in his paper’s business pages under the headline, “Post-Star wins total of 33 state Associated Press awards.” As a matter of fact, the newspaper actually won 34 awards—none for fact-checking.

As for NYSAPA’s apparent breaking of its own rules in an effort to beef up award classes and lend the contest some semblance of legitimacy, Howard Goldberg claimed that contest reform would be on the agenda at this week’s board meeting. Perhaps his board might consider scrapping the self-indulgent exercise altogether. It has passed the point of resembling Prize Day at Low-Self-Esteem Summer Camp more than any valid gauge of professional merit in a benighted industry.