Spelling Bee Still a Hit With Newspapers

By: Barbara Bedway ESPN now televises it, and the hit documentary film Spellbound celebrates it -- but the event that has become the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee was first organized by a Kentucky newspaper 78 years ago.

Most of the 251 champion spellers competing in last week's 76th annual bee in Washington, D.C. got there through the sponsorship of a daily or weekly newspaper. The winner, Sai Gunturi, age 13, was backed by The Dallas Morning News. He won by spelling the word pococurante correctly.

It's the steadfast support, both financial and promotional, of newspapers nationwide that has kept national spelling bees going since 1925, when the Louisville Courier-Journal launched the first event with just nine students.

""For some reason, bees were especially popular in Kentucky,"" explained Paige Kimball, director of the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. ""The Courier-Journal put on the first bee with eight other papers. They dropped sponsorship in 1940, and our files show that letters were sent out by a promotions editor at Scripps Howard to other newspaper editors saying, 'Let's not let this die.' There were no rights to acquire -- he just recruited other papers to keep it going.""

And so in 1941, on the eve of World War II, the bee was saved. The event was put on hold during the war years, but resumed in 1946.

Kimball, herself a national champion in 1981 (winning word: sarcophagus), was sponsored by the now-defunct El Paso Herald Post. She explained that, to sponsor bees in their communities, papers contract with the E.W. Scripps Company, which administers the annual bee on a not-for-profit-basis. (Though there's no longer a Scripps Howard company, the name is kept in connection with the spelling bee.) They pay around $700 for the sponsorship fee, and also agree to pay for the trip to Washington for the winning speller and one adult -- including their hotel, meals, and airfare.

""Papers incur expenses based on their programs,"" she said. ""They may rent a hall, or pay an honorarium to a local professor to be on their panel of judges for the bee."" Kimball estimated that most papers spend about $4,000-$6,000 for their sponsorships, though some of the larger papers in major metropolitan areas can spend in excess of $20,000.

Communities can become quite passionate about their bees, as the Miami Herald learned in February when the paper announced it would not be able to produce the competition because its co-sponsor, the Dairy Council of Florida, had pulled out. When the headline C-A-N-C-E-L-E-D appeared on the newspaper's front page, more than 15 companies stepped forward with offers to help rescue the bee.

""Papers that don't participate in bees are missing a huge opportunity,"" asserted Florence Parnham, senior education services coordinator for programs and contests at the Houston Chronicle, which sponsors bees in 39 counties in East Texas -- and this year sponsored the bee's youngest national finals participant, eight-year-old Anjay V. Ajodha.

One of the lasting benefits of bee sponsorship for papers, she said, is increased recognition in the community, as well as association with a well-loved (even before Spellbound) institution: ""The bees are the best-recognized education program that's related to our industry. And education is what newspapers are about. Papers look to future citizens who are educated. Why not begin early? Parents live in a world that supports football and baseball and other sports, and they love to see support and interest in education. Newspapers should be aligned with this endeavor.""