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THE BETTER NEWSPAPER CONTEST er, Thomas Judd. His partner at that time was Harrison Conover of Springville. In 1950, Dean Culmsee continued the practice by selecting the Box Elder News-Journal, co-published by William Long and Charles W. Claybaugh, for the recognition. Culmsee, whose sense of humor didn't bar jokes on himself, often told his audience that he was known on campus as "Professor Clumsy." He thought, but wasn't certain, that "it was just a mispronunciation of my name." The sense of humor led him to establish another ongoing award which no publisher wanted to win. He termed it the "Blunder of the Year" and in recognition of it, presented something unusual he'd acquired in his extensive foreign travels. The designation is found in today's Better Newspaper Contest as the "Screw-Up of the Year." Utah journalists, who had often discussed formal competition among their newspapers but had never acted on the idea, finally made it a reality in 1950. With the Brigham Young University experience, the Harrison R. Merrill citation and Dr. Culmsee's awards to prompt them, the Board of Directors, headed by President A. N. (Andy) Rytting of Tremonton, established the Better Newspaper Contest. It was designed to add to the front page and Community Service citations, judging for various other areas of newspapering, including typography, news writing, photography, editorials, columns and use of illustrative material. The plan called for points accumulated in those categories to be totalled to determine a General Excellence Award recipient. First through sixth places were scored on a 10-8-6-4-2-1 basis and the paper accumulating the highest total was the winner. In order to give an equal opportunity to papers of all sizes, two classes were created, based on circulation. Many years later the Board changed this procedure, instructing judges to simply rate entries for General Excellence, discarding the scoring system which closely emulated a track and field meet. At the Winter Convention of 1952, the first winners in what has become the ongoing present-day contest were announced. Accompanied by appropriate fanfare, the revelation 387 |
