National Better Newspaper Contest to launch new prompt detailing modern-day industry standards

Kate Decker

Nov 1, 2026

If you have ever participated in a newspaper contest, you know that the best part is all the ideas you glean from looking at winners. Turn that up a notch by judging contests!

“At the [Hampshire] Review, I found that working through all the categories of the contest helped me identify where our strengths and weaknesses were as a newspaper,” Jim King, retired, said. “It wasn't so much about doing what we did to win prizes; it was about looking at all the aspects that professionals judge newspapers on to make sure we were doing good work for our readers, advertisers and community.”

King's 45-year career in newsrooms included stops at dailies in Missouri and the Chicago suburbs and ended with a 14-year run at West Virginia's best big weekly, the Hampshire Review.

King now serves as a judge for the NNA Foundation's contest, as well as many state press association contests.

“Jim did an amazing job and even added some 'intriguing' categories,” NNA Executive Director Lynne Lance said. “He has truly elevated our contest.”
In next month's Pub Aux (December), we will showcase the 2026 winners and winning entries. In the January 2027 Pub Aux, we will print the new 2027 BNC prompt.

“I've entered a lot of contests over the years and judged my fair share,” King said. “These are instructions I wish I had back in the day — what a category is about, how to put an entry together and criteria for judges to hang their decisions on.”

Entries from Jan. 1, 2027, to Dec. 31, 2027, are eligible in the 2027 BNC.

If you would like to judge newspaper contests, please sign up here: https://bit.ly/46dzJ9c