Mark Twain Awards Judging

The judging is over and the winners and nominees for the 2010 Mark Twain Awards are now public on the home page of APTRA.org. Considering the shrinking and the cutbacks in newsrooms in all of our member states, the quality of the broadcast and website journalism continues to grow.

We had just over 270 entries this year. That is down just a bit from previous years and we chose this year not to reduce the cost. Many stations helped subsidize entry fees for some of staff members and some in newsrooms across our 12 state area paid out of their own pockets because they know what a Twain would look like on their mantle at home.

The judging was done on Saturday, February 20th at the Associated Press offices in downtown Los Angeles. I told the judges that their personal integrity and reputation and the integrity of the entire organization was on the line and I wanted to chose the best of the best to represent us as winners of a Mark Twain Award. The judge's panel was loaded with experience in both radio and TV and wire services and I am confident that we can all be proud of the list of winners.

For those who are curious, here is the list of judges for this year. I want to personally thank each of them for volunteering their time and their experience to the Awards.

Rachael Ambrose-retired AP Los Angeles broadcast editor
Brian Bland-retired AP Los Angeles broadcast coordinator
David Dow-retired CBS News correspondent
Bob Tarlau-retired senior producer KTTV Los Angeles
Michael Murrie-former CNBC producer and current Pepperdine University professor
Luis Torres-retired KNX Newsradio reporter
Stephanie Roberts-former KNX Newsradio reporter
Susan Katz-former APTV entertainment executive and freelance TV producer
Natalie Windsor-former AP Radio correspondent and APTV freelance reporter
Leah Grullon-coanchor on news/talk KUNX-AM (she assisted with Spanish language entries)
Michael Hollander-journalism consultant and former CNBC producer

If there were any judges who felt they had a conflict of interest, we asked them to disqualify themselves. It only happened twice during the day-long judging. Each entry was judged by at least two judges and each entry was then given a number grade based on content, creativity and presentation. In the nominee categories, the top 3 vote getters are the 3 nominees. Obviously in the non-nominee categories, the top vote getter is the winner of the Twain.

If anyone has a questions about the judging, please call or email me personally at rossbecker@tvnewsmentor.com and I will be happy to address it.

We look forward to seeing you at the convention and Mark Twain Awards celebration at Disneyland in June. Make your plans now.