Newhouse School to host ‘Best of News Design’ Competition next month

The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications will host the Society for News Design’s 31st annual Best of News Design competition Feb. 5-8 and Feb. 12-16.

This is the world’s largest program for recognizing excellence in news design, graphics and photography. An international panel of judges will review the entries and select winners over two long weekends at the Newhouse School.

The competition has been co-sponsored and hosted by the Newhouse School each February for the past 21 years, under the direction of judging director and Newhouse professor emeritus Marshall Matlock.

This year, the competition name has been changed to “The Best of News Design™” Creative Competition to reflect design excellence in both newspapers and magazines for the 2009 publishing year. The competition has expanded its magazine categories to allow non-newspaper magazines to enter along with magazines distributed with newspapers.

According to Matlock, magazine designers have long expressed interest in entering the competition, which usually attracts more than 10,000 entries from newspapers in dozens of countries around the globe.

The competition typically offers 19 categories, each with a number of subcategories. All newspaper entrants become eligible for the “World’s Best-Designed™ Newspaper” category.

Competition judges may issue awards of excellence, silver medals, gold medals, judges’ special recognitions and best of show honors. All winners receive certificates, and the World’s Best-Designed™ Newspapers receive trophies.

Winning entries are also reproduced online and in an annual book, “The Best of News Design.”

For complete coverage, visit www.snd.org beginning Feb. 6.

For more information, contact Marshall Matlock at (315) 263-8899 or mmatlock@dreamscape.com.