SU and Newhouse to host international newspaper design competition Feb. 9-19

SU and Newhouse to host international newspaper design competition Feb. 9-19January 24, 2007Wendy S. Loughlinwsloughl@syr.edu

The 28th annual Syracuse University/Society for News Design “Best of Newspaper Design™” competition will be hosted by SU and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications Feb. 9-19. Newhouse Professor Emeritus Marshall Matlock organizes the event.

“This is the most prestigious design competition in the world and the largest,” Matlock says. “We work all year to make the competition a reality. For the Newhouse School, that’s 18 years of co-sponsoring the event, which brings in some of the top designers from around the world. We do this to advance the quality of newspaper design and to allow some of our students to learn from the experience.”

More than 14,000 entries arrive at the Newhouse School each January. An entry may be one page to hundreds of pages, according to Shamus Walker, who directs the entry audit that takes place before the judges arrive. The audit process ensures that entries are placed in the correct categories so no problems occur during the judging.

Five judges will name the World’s Best-Designed Newspapers™ during the first round of judging, which takes place Feb. 9-13 at the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel & Conference Center. Twenty-seven judges will participate in the general judging, which takes place Feb. 17-19 at Drumlins Country Club. Both judging events are closed to the public.

About 90 people, including journalism and design professionals and students, work during the two competitions. “Live” reporting and streaming video of the judging will be available at http://www.su-snd.org for the World’s Best judging and http://www.snd.org for the general judging.

Last September, Matlock received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for News Design for organizing the event for nearly 20 years.

More information about the competition is available online at http://www.su-snd.org or http://www.snd.org, or by contacting Matlock at (315) 263-8899 or mmatlock@dreamscape.com.