Society for Features Journalism

View Original

SFJ’s 2024 Excellence-in-Features contest is open for submissions!

DEADLINE EXTENDED! We are extending the deadline for entries to Monday, March 25, 2024! Enter today!

=================

The Society for Features Journalism is thrilled to announce that our 2024 Excellence-in-Features contest is now open for submissions.

Once again, first-place winners in each category will receive $300.

Entry cost will be split into two tiers:

  • Early-bird submissions: Feb. 1 through March 4, cost per entry is $50.

  • Regular submissions: March 5 through March 18, cost per entry is $55. 

All entries must have been published in print or online between Jan. 1, 2023 and Dec. 31, 2023.

You can login to the Better Newspaper Contest site here and scroll to find 2024 Society for Features Journalism Excellence-in-Features Awards.

We’ve made some updates to some of our categories. 

  • General Feature has always been our most popular category, and we’d like to continue to honor all kinds of feature stories, from short form to longform. That’s why we reworked our awards structure and have introduced these new category names: General Feature, 2,500+ wordsGeneral Feature, 1,000-2,499 words; and General Feature, 999 words or fewer. The latter category has replaced the Short Feature award. We believe these changes give all feature stories a chance at shining among their peers.

  • We also changed the name of our Best Consumer/Service Feature category — it is now Best Utility Feature Portfolio.

There are three divisions based on circulation size.

CATEGORIES BY DIVISION

DIVISION 1  | Circulation up to 90,000

DIVISION 2  |  Circulation 90,000 to 199,999

DIVISION 3  |  Circulation 200,000 and up; digital-only organizations

  1. GENERAL FEATURE 2,500+ WORDS: This category will celebrate longform storytelling at its finest, and must be at least 2,500 words; no world limit after that. Feature topics can be A&E, lifestyles or news. Food features should be entered in the Food Feature category.

  2. GENERAL FEATURE 1,000-2,499 WORDS: This category will highlight top-notch feature storytelling between 1,000 and 2,499 words. Feature topics can be A&E, lifestyles or news. Food features should be entered in the Food Feature category.

  3. GENERAL FEATURE 999 WORDS OR FEWER: This category will honor excellence in short feature writing, so please share your best examples of tight, bright writing of fewer than 1,000 words. Feature topics can be A&E, lifestyles or news. Food features should be entered in the Food Feature category.

  4. ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT FEATURE: Feature treatment of an arts and entertainment topic. 

  5. FOOD FEATURE: A single story focusing on food, not including reviews or commentary. Can be a trend story, personality profile, narrative piece, how-to or other feature treatment of a food topic. 

  6. FOOD CRITICISM: A single story, such as a restaurant review, that offers opinions about a topic or restaurant in the food industry.

  7. FEATURES SERIES OR PROJECT: Feature treatment of any lifestyle, A&E or news topic that has multiple parts. 

  8. NARRATIVE STORYTELLING: A single story told in a narrative style, using techniques such as character development, use of dialogue, sense of place, scene building, narrative arc and adherence to theme.

  9. FEATURES BEAT WRITING PORTFOLIO: Three stories by the same writer on one features specialty topic, such as arts and entertainment, fashion, food, health, religion, technology or travel.

  10. FOOD WRITING PORTFOLIO: Three stories, columns or reviews by the same writer on any food topic.

  11. GENERAL COMMENTARY PORTFOLIO: A collection of three columns or essays by the same writer on any human interest or specialty topic, excluding editorials. Newsletters qualify here.

  12. ARTS & CULTURE CRITICISM PORTFOLIO: A collection of three columns, essays or reviews by the same writer on any arts, entertainment or culture topic, including dining reviews but excluding editorials.

  13. SPORTS FEATURE: Feature treatment of any sports topic.

  14. VISUAL STORYTELLING: The coverage of any A&E, lifestyle or specialty topic using a single video of not more than 8 minutes in length.

  15. BEST SPECIAL SECTION: The best your publication has to offer in printed A&E, features and lifestyle coverage. 

  16. BEST SPECIAL PRODUCT: The best examples of a special product – such as a magazine or special section – published at least two times a year.

  17. BEST UTILITY FEATURE PORTFOLIO: Three stories focused on educating readers about topics that affect their everyday lives (e.g., health, retail prices, product availability) in an easy-to-digest, consumer-oriented, “news you can use” way. Multiple bylines accepted. Please attach a 100-150 word letter explaining how the writer(s) knew this was information the community needed.

  18. BEST FIRST-PERSON NARRATIVE/ESSAYS: A single story written as an essay or in the first-person point of view that demonstrates a sense of proportion and perspective.

  19. BEST FEATURE WRITING PORTFOLIO: Three stories by the same writer that can be a combination of any beats.

  20. INCLUSION AND REPRESENTATION IN FEATURESThe coverage of any lifestyle or culture topic that centers historically marginalized or undercovered communities through revelatory storytelling. Such community identities can be at (and is not limited to) any intersection of the following: race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs or other ideologies, or any identity with lesser power. An entry can be a single story, a series, multimedia package or any combination thereof. Multiple bylines accepted. An entry should check most of the following points:

  • The story is produced for a community, not about it.

  • There is a strong voice or point of view.

  • There are elements of intentionality, compassion and empathy.

  • There is a challenging of assumptions and biases.

  • There is a sense of celebration and/or sharing of our journalistic platform.

  • There is a sense of urgency.

  • There is a portrait of the human experience.

COMBINED DIVISION CATEGORIES

BEST PODCAST — NARRATIVE: An audio story, told in a narrative style, on lifestyle or culture coverage. While the entry can be a limited series, serial or reporting built into a recurring series, the entry should exhibit narrative techniques such as character development, use of dialogue, sense of place, scene building, narrative arc and adherence to theme. The entry should also display the best qualities of this format — production, found sound, voiceover work, etc. — and will be judged by the content as well as its relevance to the moment and the communities it serves. Each entry must include a summary statement of the project of no more than 200 words. All entries consist of three episodes and, regardless of circulation category, compete in one group.

BEST PODCAST — RECURRING SERIES: A regular, recurring podcast series that handles lifestyles or culture coverage. The episodes do not have to be consecutive and do not have to feature the same host. Entries will be judged by quality of content, which includes how journalists are using the medium to advance how we cover news and our communities. All entries consist of three episodes and, regardless of circulation category, compete in one group.

Here are some helpful tips for SFJ contest entrants:

  • If your media organization is in the Contestant Manager dropdown list and you don’t remember your password (or you need to change the name of the contact person compiling the entries), send an email to our contest administrator Terry Bertling at SFJcontest4@gmail.com. She can update your account.

  • If your media organization circulation has changed and you need to move into a different circulation division, please let the contest administrator know so she can move your account to the right division.

  • All Open Call Contestants go through an approval process by our contest administrator, using information in your Credentials section in your new account to grant access to the contest. Make sure you tell us about you and your published work in that Credentials section so we can approve your account. We’re checking for accounts that need to be approved at least twice a day.

  • HUGELY IMPORTANT FAVOR: Please make sure you include the login credentials (email and password) in the Comments section for each entry to get judges past any paywall. Please also note your circulation division in that space. (Division 1, circ up to 90,000; Division 2, circ 90,001-199,999; and Division 3, circ of 200,000 and up AND all online-only publications.)

  • Most categories give you the option of including a URL or a PDF. You can include both.

  • To get the cheaper early-bird entry fee through March 4, pay for your entries by March 4. The fee for each entry goes up to $55 on March 5.

  • When you pay for your entries using PayPal, you can print a receipt for your payment.

  • If you have questions about the contest, email our contest administrator at sfjcontest4@gmail.com. We’re happy to help. Good luck!