MPA offers $1,000 in fellowships

Staff members from MPA newspapers are invited to apply now for grants to help pay for professional development. The association’s popular fellowship program is offering as many as five $200 awards for training sessions of members’ choice.

To apply for a grant, download the application form from this website. Click on “Fellowships.”  The application will ask who you are and where you work, what your job is, which training session interests you and what you expect for expenses.

Also, submit a letter of support from a supervisor indicating your newspaper’s support for your application. Newspapers will be asked to contribute for training sessions that cost more than $200.

Contact the MPA at mainepressmail@gmail.com if you have questions.

Make your call for the Hall of Fame

Nominations are being taken now for 2012 inductees to the MPA Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame, established in 1998, honors newspaper people with Maine connections who have made outstanding contributions to the profession. Three to five members have been added each year, some of them posthumously.

Nominations will be taken until June 15. The Hall of Fame Committee plans to meet in late June to select this year’s nominees. The induction ceremony is scheduled Oct. 13, during the MPA’s Fall Conference at the Hilton Garden Inn in Freeport.

To make a nomination, send a letter to the Hall of Fame Committee’s chairman, Bob Caswell, at caswell@usm.maine.edu, explaining why your nominee should be inducted.

Note correction in contest rules

The Better Newspaper Contest rules that were sent to member newspapers in April contained incorrect dates for Sports Section entries for Daily and Weekend papers. The rules for Sports Section should have read:

Dailies must submit sections from Feb. 2 and Feb. 3, 2012, and a section of their choice.

Weekends must submit sections from the weekends of Jan. 13, 14, 15 and Jan. 20, 21, 22, 2012, and a section of their choice.

Please note this change as you compile contest entries. If you have questions about the Sports Section category or any other aspect of the contest, contact the MPA at mainepressmail@gmail.com.

MPA welcomes The Calais Advertiser

The Calais Advertiser has become the newest member of the Maine Press Association. The weekly paper in Washington County was approved for membership by the MPA Board of Directors on March 22. A month earlier, Fiddlehead Focus of Fort Kent joined the MPA.

The association now has 30 members, including 23 weekly papers and seven dailies. To see The Calais Advertiser online, go to http://www.thecalaisadvertiser.com/

Judges needed for New Hampshire contest

The MPA and the New Hampshire Press Association will collaborate this year to arrange judging for the two states’ newspaper contests. New Hampshire will assemble a group to judge categories in the MPA’s Better Newspaper Contest and the MPA will do the same for New Hampshire’s Better Media Contest.

Judges from Maine are needed to assess New Hampshire’s entries in categories including Newswriting, Sports Writing, Photography, Advertising and Digital.

Judging does require a commitment of time, but it is an interesting and instructive experience. New Hampshire’s contest is on roughly the same time frame as the MPA’s, so judges can expect to receive entries in late spring/early summer.

Contact the MPA at mainepressmail@gmail.com if you’re interested in being a judge.