The 2011 AltWeekly Awards is now accepting entries. The deadline to submit entries to the contest website is Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 11 pm (EST).

2011 AltWeekly Awards Contest Site

CHANGES FOR 2011

In a departure from previous years, all entries in the web categories — Group/Staff Blog, Individual Blog, Multimedia, and Music Blog — will compete against each other in one size division. All other categories will continue to be broken out into two size divisions: large circulation (50,000 and over) and small circulation (under 50,000).

This year’s Wild Card category is Drugs Reporting, which may include news articles related to medical marijuana.

ELIGIBILITY

The contest is open to member papers of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and to cartoonists whose work appears in those papers.

All entries must have been published in the period from Jan. 1, 2010, through Dec. 31, 2010 with the exception of entries in the Investigative Reporting and Public Service categories (see rules for details). Each entry must have been published originally in the member paper or its website and should not be a reprint.

Entries must be submitted by the editor, publisher or another designated representative of the member paper. Individual cartoonists may enter their own work, but will need a letter from an AAN paper in which their work appears

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE CONTEST RULES AND SPECIFIC CATEGORY DEFINITIONS (pdf)

ENTRY FEES

The competition in each category is separated into two divisions based on circulation figures. For larger papers (circulation of 50,000 and over), the fee is $35 per entry, and for smaller papers (circulation under 50,000), the entry fee is $25 per entry. The entry fee for cartoons is $25.

ENTRY DEADLINE

All entries must be submitted online by 11 pm EST on Tue., Mar. 1, 2011. Any hard-copy entries (for design categories) must be received at the AAN office by 5 pm EST on Fri., Mar. 4, 2011.

Please ship hard-copies to:

Association of Alternative Newsweeklies

1156 15th Street NW, Suite 905

Washington, DC 20005

AWARDS PRESENTATION

Finalists will be announced in June 2011. The order of finish will be announced at the 34th annual AAN Convention in New Orleans, which will take place July 21–23, 2011. All winners will receive certificates.

QUESTIONS

Questions about entry rules and issues should be directed to contests[at]aan.org.