BASIC INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1 — Register by completing the online registration form. Use the “Register” link above. The Association code is: NHCONTEST  (case sensitive).  You will receive a confirmation email from NOREPLY@newpapercontest.com within a few minutes, which you will need to click on the embedded confirm link to complete the registration process. (We recommend each news organization create just one sign-on, even if there will be more than one person submitting entries.) You may have to check your spam or promotions folder to find the confirmation email.

Step 2 — Make sure you have thoroughly read the appropriate “Professional Contest Rules” or “College Contest Rules” links above, to ensure you are familiar with the types of awards and criteria for each category. Some browsers, such as Safari, will open the rules in a new window; others will require you to download the PDF file to your computer.

Step 3 — With your confirmed email and password registration information, log in to the contest entry page by using the  “News Organization Login” link above. From this page you will enter new and review and edit existing entries. Existing entries will appear in a list below the two green horizontal fields. On your first visit the page will be blank.

Step 4 — To start the entry process, click on the “Add New Entry” link at the top of the page.

Step 5 — On this page, select your news organization from the dropdown list to the right of “Company.” A lot of information will autofill. If that information is incorrect, please contact contest@pressnh.org. College news organizations will be marked with an “*” as their first character and appear at the top of the list. Your class will be selected for you based on your New Hampshire Press Association membership class. Class 1 is for large daily news organizations with five or more newsroom employees. Class 2 is for small news organizations with four or fewer newsroom employees. Class 3  is for college news organizations. Class 4  is for high schools.

Step 6 — Fill in the preparer’s name.

Step 7 — Select a “Contest Type” from the dropdown list. This field will clear each time you save an entry, so you must select a class for each new entry. There are three contest types, “Excellence”, “News” and “College.”

The “Excellence” type is for professional special award categories such as “general excellence” and “journalist of the year.” The “news” type is for professional general award categories such as “best spot news story” and “best editorial writing.” Please note that professionals can only enter the “excellence” and “news” types and colleges can only enter college types. If a professional news organization attempts to enter the college type or if a college news organization attempts to enter an “excellence” or “news” type, their entries will be rejected when they try to save them.

Step 8 — Select a “Contest Category” from the dropdown list. When you select the category, special instructions will appear below it. These special instructions describe the award and what supporting documentation should be uploaded and in what forms. This information can also be found in the contest rules.

Step 9 — Some categories require or allow a cover letter explanation of 500 words or less for each entry. This explanation can be uploaded as a separate file or entered in the explanation/cutline box on the “add new entries” page. If using the direct entry, it’s a good idea to write your explanation in another program, such as Word, and copy/paste it into the explanation/cutline box.

Step 10 — If your entry includes links to online content enter the URLs in the URL boxes. There is no need to type “http://.” Up to five links can be added in the contest form. If more than five links are needed, embed them in a text file and uploaded the file using the file upload feature at the bottom of the “add new entries” page.

Step 11 — Include the name of the entry. If uploading full-page PDF files, it will be helpful if the entry name matches the headline on the page so the judges can find it easily. If the judges cannot tell what is to be judged, the entry will be discarded without refund.

Step 12 — Using the “Person(s) to Receive Award” box, add the name of the person or people who should be credited for the award. This is generally the writer, reporter, photographer, graphic artist, cartoonist, etc. It is not necessarily the name of the person submitting the entry nor the person picking up the award at the convention. These are the names that will appear on the winning plaque and certificates presented at the awards banquet.

Step 13 — Add your supporting file or files. You can drag and drop files or use the “Add files” button to navigate to your files. Files can be in multiple formats including .doc, .docx, .gif, .jpeg, .jpg, .mp3, .pdf, .rtf, .wmv and .pdf. Other files and URLs may be acceptable as noted in the special instructions. If you have a question about acceptable file types please ask at contest@pressnh.org. Upload as many files as are necessary to complete your entry but refer to the special instructions for any limitations.

Step 14 — When you have completed your submission, click the “Save” button. If you click the “Back to list” button, you will lose the entry you just completed. After clicking “Save,” you will be directed back to the list of your entries.

Step 15 — To submit another entry, click “Add New Entry.” As long as you have not logged out of the system, your news organization name will still be in place and you can simply start at Step 4 again. You may log out and log back in later to continue adding entries.

Step 16 — If you are done submitting entries, please review the list. You may not change an entry, but you may delete an entry and resubmit it.

Step 17 — Once you have reviewed the list and are done submitting entries it’s time to pay up. From your news organization page of entry listings, on the left-hand side click on “Entry Billing.” There you will see the total cost of your entries. You can choose to “Pay Now” using a credit card or PayPal account or you can pay by check to New Hampshire Press Association, c/o Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications, 100 William Loeb Drive, Suite 1A, Manchester, NH 03109. Entries are not valid until payment is received. The deadline for all payments, online and by check, is the contest closure date.

If paying online, DO NOT CHECK OUT UNTIL ALL YOUR ENTRIES ARE COMPLETE. If you pay and then add entries later, the system will bill for all the entries, even the ones you have already paid.