Medill To Administer Alternative Weekly Awards

By: Joe Strupp Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism will take over administration of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies' annual AltWeekly Awards, AAN announced.

The contest, in existence since 1996, honors the best in alternative newspaper work. In the past, AAN staff has been responsible for accepting and distributing entries, recruiting judges, and tabulating scores and ranks. The staff also created a yearly collection of the winning entries titled Best AltWeekly Writing and Design.

AAN says it chose to have an outside administrator after a record number of entries following the decision three years ago to include an online entry option.

"Staffing the contest has always been difficult," says AAN executive director Richard Karpel. "It's a full-time job for about half the year, and a part-time job for the other half. It makes a lot of sense to outsource some of the heavy lifting to a larger organization."

"AAN's Editorial Committee will continue to work with staff to select the categories each year and supervise the contest, while Medill will take over the day-to-day activities," the organization said in a statement. "For the 2008 AltWeekly Awards, AAN editorial projects manager Heather Kuldell will work with Medill professor Charles Whitaker to ensure a smooth transition. Kuldell, who handled the 2007 contest, will gradually assume other duties within the association."

In addition to overseeing the AltWeekly Awards, Whitaker runs the Academy for Alternative Journalism, a summer program that trains and recruits minority journalists to work at AAN papers. Medill also hosts AAN's Alternative Journalism Writing and Design Workshop, which is held each year in August.

"In my dreams, AAN editors will turn to Medill first when looking for talent," Whitaker said in a statement. "We also hope to be a resource for those editors and papers experimenting with digital storytelling and new ways to connect with their audience. Ultimately, I want people to think of AAN and Medill the way they think of Columbia and the Pulitzers or Harvard and the Nieman fellowship."