Al Clark: Editorial contest a winning exercise, whether we win or lose

Looking back, despite what some might say about our business, I can tell you it's been a good year. It's only October, you say, but for me it's contest time.

Each year in August and September I spend significant time gathering the best work from our editorial staff to enter into the North Carolina Press Association's News, Editorial and Photojournalism Contest. The contest year runs from October 1 through the following September. The awards are judged later in the year and presented in a February ceremony.

It is a labor-intensive task at times to cajole my colleagues to clip and submit their work, then check the entry forms and sort the entries and log them, making sure to follow all contest rules and guidelines. I can get pretty tired of that.

But I never tire of the trip the contest leads me through another year in the life of this community, seen through the eyes of the purposeful group of community journalists here in our newsroom. Sometimes it's easy to lose sight of the fact that we publish a new report on community life every day, 365 days a year.

That's a lot of clippings. A lot of stories and pictures.

This year was one in which looking back was significant — 25 years ago terrible tornadoes swept through the county, many were killed here and damage was great. And this, too, was the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Floyd and its unprecedented flooding. Our reporting and writing about these anniversaries are among our strongest news contest entries.

We also chronicled the story of a teenager from Moldova who with the help of local churches was able to come to this country for treatment from a special group of local health professionals for terrible scarring left by burns she suffered as an infant. There too was the sensitive story of a young boy's relationship with an East Carolina basketball player before illness took the boy's life.

There were controversies — Wal-Mart, Dr. Unks, school uniforms, health care — and crimes — terrible shooting deaths, robberies, break-ins and the community's outpouring of worry and concern that rose in their wake. There were happier stories, of people doing their jobs well or collecting Barbies on her 50th anniversary or winning art contests, establishing friendships. We discovered the hiding places of feral cats and examined plans for upgrading our public school facilities.

Columnists told every manner of tale, from boys finding turtles at the ball field to the struggles of race that preceded Obama's historic victory. Editorials voiced support and dissent; photos captured us wherever we stood.

We told of Pirate wins and losses, classroom achievements and challenges — and though I couldn't enter these in the contest, we also featured weather drawings sent in by 365 Pitt County kids. I wish there were a category for those. I know they would win.

Well, I'm not quite finished getting everything together yet for this year's contest so I better get back to it. The Reflector has won first place in the General Excellence category for newspapers in the state up to 35,000 circulation for the past two years. Here's hoping for the hat trick.

But win or lose, I'm sending out congratulations today to all of our professionals who have worked so hard to consider, report and write these stories and take these pictures in their and your community this year. Going back through their work always is a win for me.

Al Clark is executive editor of The Daily Reflector. Contact him at aclark@coxnc.com.