Win Valuable Prizes!

As magazine contests go, the TechNews Best Practices Awards are very generous.

Most programs require applicants to pay a fee, and they reward the winners with a plaque or a trophy. The Best Practices Awards turns that model on its head. There is no application fee, and we award not only a plaque, but also $1,000 to each of the five winning teams. Money flows from the magazine to the winners, and the applicants have nothing to lose but the time it takes to enter.

Why are we so generous? To put it simply, we want to learn about innovative practices at newspapers. Because if we know about them, we can tell our readers about them--and that helps this magazine remain a good read and a truly useful tool. In fact, we have written about many nominated practices that didn't win one of our awards but were still ingenious. We never would have known about them if not for the Best Practices Awards.

Despite the low-risk, high-reward nature of our program, we are still not satisfied with the level of participation. Why don't more newspapers submit nominations? Here are some possible reasons:

• "We've never heard of the program." [Well, you have now.]
• "We were waiting until it got closer to the deadline to submit a nomination." [The deadline is Nov. 1.]
• "We don't know how to enter." [It couldn't be more simple--just fill out the form and fax it in.]
• "We don't have a best practice to nominate." [Oh, come on! You're a newspaper-operations executive. It's your job to figure out how to improve your operations.]
• "We don't have the time." [How long does it take to fill out a one-page form?]
• "We don't want other newspapers to learn about our best practices." [Why not? I would argue that your major competitors are not other newspapers but other media. It benefits all of us when we share ideas.]

So please fill out the form and fax it in. It won't cost you anything but a few minutes of your time. In return, you'll get the satisfaction of helping your industry. And you just might win $1,000.

Clark Robinson
Editor

Feedback Facts

Questions? Comments? TechNews wants your feedback. You can reach us in any of the following ways:

• Mail--TechNews, 1921 Gallows Road, Suite 600, Vienna, Va. 22182-3900
• Phone--(703) 902-1686
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• Internet e-mail--technews@naa.org
• America Online e-mail--TNMag

TechNews Volume 3, Number 5: September/October 1997

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