2008 VPA Contest

Categorical changes to 2008 VPA contest: Some say goodbye, others are combined

By BILL ATKINSON
VPA Publications Editor

Entrants in next year’s news and editorial contest will find “Home” in a new place.

The home, leisure and entertainment (HLE) writing category in the contest has been eliminated as part of a minor contest facelift approved by the Virginia Press Association Board of Directors last month. The board also approved the elimination of a photography category and consolidated five other categories into two new ones.

The changes are spelled out in the Call for Entries now available on the VPA Web site. Visitors to the site also may download information about competition groups, division categories and entry certification.

Acting on recommendations from the VPA News Awards Committee, the board agreed to eliminate both the HLE writing category and the pictorial photo category from the 2007 contest roster. HLE writing now may be entered in the feature writing portfolio. Pictorial photos now may be entered in the feature photo category.

The board also agreed to the following consolidations:

The government writing and public safety writing categories have been merged to form a new category — government and public safety writing.

Categories for sports competition writing, sports feature writing and sports news writing now form a new category called sports writing portfolio.

Also, the board adopted changes in the entry format and entry limits areas. Writing entries may be submitted as clippings, archive-system printouts, photocopies, full-page tearsheets or page proofs no smaller than 11x17 (tabloid) size.

Entry limits were lowered in many categories. The new limits are included in the category description information.