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It takes a lot of people . . .
It took a lot of people to make the 25th Edition judging work. The judging itself takes place over seven days at Syracuse University over a two-week period.
The first part of the judging takes four days where the World's Best-Designed Newspapers? are selected by a panel of five judges.
The second phase of the judging is the general judging where 21 judges select winners from all categories except for the World's Best, Category 1. That judging takes three long days.
Obviously, the judges are at the heart of the decision-making when it comes to the winners; however, many more people assist in the process to make sure the decisions are made in a timely way so by the end of the last day all work is done. It is an awesome task and you have to be at the judging to understand the process and the work involved.Having said that, about 60 assistants are selected each year to help. The 25th Edition assistants are listed below.
Assistants are selected in July before the February judging but will not be announced until the beginning of the judging.
One assistant is appointed specifically by Marshall Matlock to assist at the Edition competition at Edition Coordinator. He or she is a key player at the judging in keeping judges updated and on track. For the 25th Edition that person was Christine McNeal. Michael Whitley has been appointed the 26th Edition Coordinator.
Tim Ball , design director, Wisconsin State Journal, Madison , Wis.
Jonathon Berlin , assistant design director, Rocky Mountain News, Denver , Colo.
Stanley Bondy , Syracuse University , Syracuse , N.Y.
Audrey Burian , Syracuse University , Syracuse N.Y.
Robert Casey , AME for visuals, The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento , Calif.
Steve Cavendish , art & presentation director, St. Petersburg Times, St. Petersburg , Fla.
Matt Erickson , assistant sports editor, design & special projects, The Times of Northwest Indiana, Munster , Ind.
Justin Ferrell , assistant design editor for news, The News & Observer, Raleigh , N.C.
Bill Gaspard , news design director, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles , Calif.
Jeremy Gilbert , art director, The News-Press, Fort Myers , Fla.
Scott Goldman , assistant sports editor, The Washington Post, Washington , D.C.
Dave Gray , SND executive director, Providence , R.I.
Pete Hahnloser , news editor, Ashland Daily Tidings, Ashland , Ore.
Ron Johnson , editor of The Best of Newspaper Design? book & director of student publications, Kansas State University , Manhattan , Kan.
Kris Kinkade , interim design editor, Kalamazoo Gazette, Kalamazoo , Mich.
David Kordalsk i, The Plain Dealer, AME / visuals, Cleveland , Ohio
Francie Krantz , copy editor/page designer, Portland Press Herald, Portland , Maine
Matt Mansfield , deputy managing editor, San Jose Mercury News, San Jose, Calif.
Marshall Matlock , Syracuse University , Syracuse , N.Y.
Christine McNeal , deputy managing editor for weekend news & presentation, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee , Wis.
Katee Neal , Accent editor, Stars and Stripes, Washington , D.C.
Sandra Morera , SND office assistant, Providence , R.I.
Tim Munroe , night editor, The Packet & Times, Orillia , Ontario
Sanghyun Park , sports editor, METRO, Seoul , Korea
Epha Riche , A-1/projects designer, Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis , Ind.
Jane Rushmore , copy editor & designer, The New Haven Register, New Haven, Conn.
Susan Santoro , SND membership assistant, Providence , R.I.
Jay Small , director of product development, Belo Interactive, Dallas , Texas
Josh Smith , designer, Kalamazoo Gazette, Kalamazoo , Mich.
Greg Swanson , assistant managing editor for presentation, Quad-City Times, Davenport , Iowa
Dennis Varney , designer, Herald-Leader, Lexington , Ky.
Shamus Walker , entry audit director, Syracuse University , Syracuse , N.Y.
Michael Whitley , deputy design director, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles . Calif.
Dan Williamson , staff photographer, The Telegraph, Nashua , N.H.
Steve Wolgast , staff editor, news design, The New York Times, New York , N.Y.
Syracuse University Students: Joe Brier, Peter Blair, Caroline Chen, Heike D. Currie, Susan Fischer, Lindsay Jean, Erin Johnson, Abbie Kulhowvick, Rob Kurtz, Casey Lynn, Katye Martens, Amy Peters, Alberto Rigau, Heather Rohan, Deborah Silliman, Carolyn Simon, Priscilla Smith, Jessica Wechter.
Northwestern University Students: Dana Openheim, Lucia Rodriguez de Lillo, Tiffany Sakato, Marianne Seregi, William Sullivan.
Nine SND members have been appointed to serve two-year terms on the Society's Competition Committee, according to Committee Director Marshall Matlock.The Committee, appointed by Matlock, acts as an advisory group to the Competition Committee director and decides who will judge the annual international competition which takes place at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University , each February.
The Committee's work is critical to the year-round work that has to be done to make sure the competition goes well, Matlock says. These are nine of about 60 people who participate in the judging each year, he says.
The committee is made up of a cross section of experienced assistants who have served from one year to 13, he says.The Committee meets each fall at the annual SND workshop to select judges and discuss other matters related to the competition. Committee members also discuss rules changes and important issues from e-mails when needed.
Matlock also appointed Christine McNeal, a committee member, the 25th Edition coordinator and Michael Whitley, another member, the 26th Edition coordinator. Coordinators instruct judges at the judging and recommend possible judges from a master list which is kept from year to year.
Steve Cavendish is the art and presentation director at the St. Petersburg ( Fla. ) Times. He came to the Times in 2002 after stints at The Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News and Asbury Park Press. His work has been honored by SND as well as numerous other competitions. He has been a competition assistant since 1996 and served as the 22nd Edition coordinator.
Matt Erickson is the assistant sports editor for design at The Times of Northwest Indiana. He started his career as a sports designer at The Times after finishing his newspaper studies in 1997. In 2001, he helped lead The Times' 50-inch web conversion redesign, then traveled to Orangeburg , S.C. , to give the Times & Democrat a redesign. He is currently working on a "reinvention" and redesign of The Times to launch this fall.
Justin Ferrel l is a designer at the News & Record in Greensboro , N.C. , where he mostly works on A1, the sports front and special projects. He also occasionally manages the news desk as night editor and fills in as wires editor. Before moving to Greensboro nearly four years ago, he was a sports reporter / copy editor / designer at the St. Augustine ( Fla. ) Record.
Gayle Grin is assistant managing editor at the National Post in Canada where she is responsible for the newspaper's visual presentations. She was a member of the design team that launched the National Post, Canada 's national newspaper, nearly five years ago. Twice, the National Post was named one of the World's Best-Designed? newspapers by SND. Previously, she was feature design editor at The Montreal Gazette in Canada .
Kris Kinkade is an A1 page designer and graphic artist with the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette. After a reporting stint in Kokomo , Ind. , he turned to page design and graphics production at smaller papers in South Carolina and Michigan during his 14 years in the business. He has received several state awards in page and graphics design over the years. An eight-year member of SND, he recently helped judge the Virginia Associated Press contest.
Christine McNeal , 25th Edition competition coordinator, is assistant managing editor for presentation at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She previously worked as a news reporter, copy editor, entertainment editor, graphics-design editor and assistant managing editor for the Journal Star in Peoria , Ill. She joined the Journal Sentinel in October 1997 as its graphics editor and worked her way up to her current position in September 2000. Christine is treasurer of the SND.
Greg Swanson is assistant managing editor for presentation at the Quad-City Times in Davenport , Iowa . He oversees all visuals at the newspaper, including photography and copy desk operations. He has worked as a designer at the Omaha World-Herald and The Detroit News. He returned home to the Quad-Cities three years ago to help lead the newspaper to its first-ever SND award. Since that award, the Times has been honored as the Suburban Newspaper of America's Newspaper of the Year. He is the Region 6 director for SND.
Shamus Walker has been audit director for the annual competition for the past 13 years. His responsibilities include directing the audit staff and making sure publication entries follow the rules for each category. During the judging he is the number two person at SU for keeping the judging running smoothly. He is past associate editor of The Best of Newspaper Design. When he is not working with the competition he is a substitute teacher in upstate New York .
Michael Whitley is the deputy design director for news & sports at the Los Angeles Times. He has been involved with the SND competition for five years and will serve as the 26th Edition coordinator. He has previously worked at the Charlotte Observer, The San Diego Union-Tribune and the former Copley Chicago Newspaper Group.
Marshall Matlock: His job is to make sure preparations for the 25th Edition judging process is complete and that the day-to-day judging schedule is met. Syracuse University and the Dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, David Rubin, charge him to represent the School and University as co-sponsor of the judging. Matlock also coordinates all assistants working the competition and answers judging procedural questions.Matlock's work is almost done for the 25th Edition and will continue until the follow-up work is completed. He has now started work on the 26th Edition competition. Thus the competition is a year-round activity for Matlock and the Newhouse School as well as the SND.
Shamus Walker : Walker is the audit and entry director. He is also the Judging Director's assistant and as such will work hundreds of hours before, during and after the judging to make sure his staff met deadlines and followed competition entry rules. During the judging he supervises the location of entries to be judged as well as entries that are eliminated once the judging is completed. If there is a problem in either area he is the person contacted to answer questions.
He is the first person who opens the hundreds of packages as they arrive at Syracuse University . He and his staff begin the audit as soon as the first package arrives. This is a long process and requires working seven-day weeks for his staff.Christine McNeal, assistant managing editor for design, graphics & photography at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee , Wis. , was the 25th Edition Coordinator. She was appointed by Matlock, he says, because of her "outstanding leadership ability and ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure. She's a 'people person' with a lot of experience in assisting at the competition the past few years." Her first job was to prepare the Call for Entries for the judging. Also, she presented the Competition Committee the names of possible judges from a "master" list and that committee selected the judges as is done each fall.
Michael Whitley , deputy design director, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles . Calif. , is the 26th Edition Coordinator.Team Captains lead each of the four judging teams during the three days of the general judging. The Edition Coordinator helps in keeping the Team Captains informed and on track with updated information, schedule changes and updates during the judging.
Marshall Matlock and Shamus Walker work with the Category 1 (World's Best) judges during their four days of judging.
It will take about 70 people to make the 26th Edition judging process work. They volunteer their services and, in the words of many, share the "best educational experience possible in the design world." We will list their names, affiliations and work titles in March 2005 on this site. As they say, "stay tuned and we'll be right back" ... in February! The assistants will be selected the first week of July preceding the judging. For more information go the the SND Web site.
COMPETITION COMMITTEE members are (front row, l to r) Justin Ferrell, Gayle Grin, Matt Erickson and Kris Kinkade . Back row (l to r) Shamus Walker, Christine McNeal, Greg Swanson, Michael Whitley and Steve Cavendish.
