Unless I have missed it, the Joplin Globe still has not made mention of staff writer Jeff Lehr's feat of winning four awards last Friday in the annual Missouri Associated Press Managing Editors contest.
The Branson Daily News paid Lehr some respect in its article praising its own sports editor, Pat Dailey, who won three awards. It noted that Dailey won more awards from APME this year than any reporter except, of course, Lehr.
A Joplin Globe reporter's accomplishments were worth mentioning in the Branson Daily News, yet they don't merit a mention in the hometown newspaper.
Back in the days when a whiskey-soaked Tom Murray ran The Globe newsroom, staffers used to get together at the end of the year for dinner, frivolity and mostly gossip. Mixed in among all the brouhaha were awards given out that were voted on by their peers. Not an unusual event in the newspaper industry. These were the awards most staffers wanted to win. That's also when almost everyone in the newsroom liked one another.
ReplyDeleteYou see, outside a Pulitzer, print journalism awards are rather meaningless accomplishments. This is how the process works: An editor picks stories to nominate based on whether they like a particular reporter. Or the reporter can pay the $50 to $75 him or herself to enter the story if the paper refuses. The stories are divided into categories based on the size of the paper's circulation. This is done because God knows nothing The Globe could produce can compete with the sinking ship that is the St. Louis Post-Dispatch or the consistently disappointing Kansas City Star, so stories from those papers never compete with The Globe's stuff. In some states, the field is narrowed at this point to 10 or 15 entries in each category for each circulation range, but in other states not. Then the mass of contestant stories are sent to another state newspaper association, let's pretend this time it's North Dakota. So then the stories are judged by one person from a paper of a similar size out of North Dakota during one hellish day at a suburban Fargo Holiday Inn. One person is the deciding factor in who wrote the best investigative series for Missouri newspapers with a ciruclation of 25,000 to 49,999. And who is that one person? He's the obit writer for the Bismarck Poopshooter-Times who drew the short straw when the managing editor was looking for volunteers. Does he want to be there? No. Does he know anything about investigative journalism? No. Does he even read all 10 entries submitted? Hell no.
A soiled place mat from Steak and Shake is more valuable than an APME award or any other state journalism award for that matter. The only good it serves is resume filler so the winning reporter can move onward and upward, and also to make the newspaper feel good about itself by promoting its reporters' accomplishments. Again The Globe has failed to even do that right.
I find these comments interesting. Over the years, I had helped judge newspaper contests and I assure you, the contests I helped judge sure didn't look like anything you described. I was impressed with how the judging was handled and how judges were chosen and given categories to judge.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it has been my experience that stories to be submitted by a newspaper were not just chosen by an editor. Reporters, columnists, etc. were asked to suggest their own work and, most every time, those were the works submitted to the contest. At least I was always given an opportunity to suggest any of my own work.
I would be very happy to win any award from contests I know anything about.
Speaking of Pulitzers. I once sat by Michael Pulitzer at a big dinner in St. Louis. We had a long talk about the prizes...I didn't hear his explanation of the contest that made it sound any more fair and prestigeous than any other contests of which I am aware.
Just want to share with the general public my view of these things....now people can have two views and decide for themselves.
Globe Rat, the Joplin Globe is capable of submitting work that can compete with the KC Star and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch when the editors actually allow them to. At the batch of awards before this one (featured in Turner's blog, but receiving little analysis), the Globe fared decently when going up against those bigger papers.
ReplyDeleteRyan Malashock's work took awards right alongside writers from both the Star and the Post-Dispatch. Jeremiah Tucker beat out all other papers for Best News or Feature Series. The Globe even took first place is best local business coverage over both the Star and the Post-Dispatch, which I'm sure have bigger business staffs than the Globe does.
If the Globe can't compete with those papers, how do those marks happen?
I don't know who the Globe Rat has been submitting his contest entry fees to, but man, they sure have been sticking it to him. Fifty to $75!?! Usually, myself and a cohort or three submit the contest entries for the Daily to APME and MPA. for APME, costs recently went up a dollar from $5 to $6 per entry.
ReplyDeleteAs for the divisions based on circulation, does Globe Rat really think it's equitable for a paper with a staff of three to compete against one of 33? Or 330? How about a 1,500 circulation paper against a 150,000 circ? Or 1.5 million?
Would that we could have someone on payroll with the title "Investigative Writer" and give them a month or two to write one story. That's a luxury the little papers don't have, and a reason they shouldn't have to compete with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch or the Star.
I think Globe Rat's cerebellum has absorbed more than it's fair share of whiskey.
Globe Rat is right about editors picking favorites when it comes to contest entries or picking which reporters will be selected for the assignments that are designed to win awards.
ReplyDeleteIt shouldn't be a surprise when Jermiah Tucker, Derek Spellman or Ryan Malashock wins an award. It's a testament to Jeff Lehr's ability that he gets the hardware without support. And he probably doesn't even give a damn.
These local competitions help already full of themselves editors and writers get even more self important.
ReplyDeleteI read the "Globe" at home for a long time until it became so thin, so prejudiced and so self-indulgent with its numerous columnists and its desire to be "important" that it really wasn't worth the money.
Sometimes I go get one on Sunday and, once I've finished it I wish I had those quarters back.
Unfortunately, the state of journalism locally and nationally is not good.
The willingness of the corporate press to endorse Bush's invasion of Iraq, to be "managed" by Rumsfeld and company, delayed by a good two years the outrage that should have been evident from the beginning.
Although I am not inclined to back Mr. Nodler on anything, I suspect that he was "set up" on that movie theatre incident by a reporter looking for a sensationalized story.
Lehr is a good reporter. Why the "Globe" would be reluctant to brag about him is a mystery--unless the association with defector Jeff Wells to the competition is just too much to bear.
I'm surprised everyone has let the reference to a "whiskey-soaked Tom Murray" go by without comment. What an incompetent boob he is! I think he had some journalistic talent 35 years ago, but his drinking and hot temper brought about his downfall. I recall once when he drove several hundred miles just to challenge someone to a fight. Don't expect Tom to have any better luck with the Joplin Business Journal; it's just a matter of time before they give him the axe, too.
ReplyDeleteGlobe Rat, send me some contest entries. I need some whiskey money. Four or five ought to do it.
ReplyDeleteWhiskey-soaked is a newspaper term of endearment.
ReplyDelete