Time to select contest entries

It’s time for Texas Press Association members to begin reviewing work published over the past year and a half in preparation for the 2018-19 Texas Better Newspaper Contest.
To make the transition to a winter awards presentation from summer, the period for this year’s contest covers more than 18 months: January 2018 through Aug. 31, 2019. In future years, the contest period will be Sept. 1 through Aug. 31. 
Entry period for the 2018-19 contest opens Sept. 9 and closes Oct. 4. The contest is open to newspapers that are members in good standing and were members throughout the contest period. Participants are reminded the current membership dues must be paid before the entry period ends. Entries will be disqualified if dues are not paid.
Members of the Tennessee Press Association will judge contest entries in October. TPA members judged Tennessee contest entries earlier this year.
Awards will be presented at the annual TPA Convention and Trade Show, scheduled Jan. 16-18, 2020, at Moody Gardens Hotel, Spa and Convention Center in Galveston.
TPA continues to use the “Better BNC” platform and contest rulebooks will be mailed to member newspapers later this month.
Competition categories are the same and include advertising, blue moon special section, column writing, community service, editorial writing, feature photo, feature writing, general excellence, headline writing, news photo, news writing, page design, routine special section, sports coverage, sports photo and website.
Entry fees also remain the same.
Except for Division 1, divisions are determined by the circulations of the participating newspapers.
Circulation divisions include Division 1 for the top five metro dailies; Divisions 2 and 3 for dailies, divided equally into two divisions based on circulation; Divisions 4 and 5 for semi-weeklies, also divided equally into two divisions based on circulation; and Divisions 6 - 10 for weekly participants, broken down into circulation groups.