Posted April 23, 2008

By MARK MITTELSTADT

Newspaper and online editors wishing to submit their best work for the 2008 APME Journalism Excellence Awards will find it easier, faster and less expensive to enter this year.

Forget about digging up old copies of stories, preparing massive entry books, looking for back issues and calling FedEx the night before the entries are due.

For the first time all entries will be submitted online. To reach APME's contest site, click here.

To reduce entrants' workload, the Associated Press Managing Editors hired the Maryland-based OMNI Solutions Group to prepare the APME contest site. The site is tailored to the needs of APME members. In all categories entrants won't need to touch paper at all. They will type the information about their entries into online entry forms and then upload files – .PDFs, .DOCs and several multimedia formats – to complete the entry.

The contest rules are available by clicking here.

This year's contest includes a few other changes:

■ Unlimited entries in each category. Previously there had been a limit of one.

■ Earlier deadlines. Because of the earlier date of the APME conference at which the awards will be presented (Sept. 8-11 in Las Vegas) this year's deadline is June 2, with a late entry date of June 9. Entries submitted June 3-9 will include a $10 late fee.

■ Shorter contest cycle. Because of the earlier deadline, the eligibility period during which entries must have been published is July 1, 2007, to May 31, 2008, instead of June 30.

■ Earlier Innovator Deadline. The APME Innovator of the Year award competition period will coincide with APME's four other award competitions: Public Service, First Amendment, Online Convergence and International Perspective.

To enter, obtain a single username and password by registering at the OMNI contest site. Remember that log-in to submit all entries. The site will help members keep track of how many entries they've completed. It will calculate the total cost of entry fees and generate entry forms for mailed-in submissions.

The entry fees for member newspapers are reduced. To see if you are a member click here. To become a member of APME click here.

Judges will work online in evaluating entries. Questions and comments about the site should be addressed to APME's Contest Committee chairman, Jan Touney, managing editor of the Quad-City Times. She can be reached at (563) 383-2264 or by e-mail jtouney@qctimes.com.

Mark Mittelstadt is executive director of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association. He is reachable at (212) 621-1838 or at mmittelstadt@ap.org.