Mailbag: Details about numbering

One reader writes from the snowy tundra that is the heartland of America to ask:
Q: Why is the competition, and the popular and useful book it results in, referred to by an arcane edition number, rather than the year it covers? What has more instant meaning:

The 28th Best of Newspaper Design competition
SND 28
vs.
The Best of Newspaper Design 2005 competition
SND 2005

Has a switch ever been proposed? Most other such competitions, such as the Pulitzers, go by year. Just curious.


Great question. And one that the SND International Web Desk had to hit the history books to dig out an answer.

The current numbering began way back with the first edition and stuck -- it became a tradition. Originally the contest judged work from about March or April until the following March or April, unlike the January-to-December calendar year it now covers.

"What we have done in recent years is refer to the edition and the year," said competition coordinator Marshall Matlock. "They didn't use to refer to the year."

This -- the 28th annual judging -- will be the 18th year Syracuse University has hosted the event. The first year after the competition moved here was a shorter judging period while organizers tried to adjust things a little by changing the judging period to cover the calendar year.

So how else can you differentiate 18 years and literally thousands of newspaper pages? "Every year is interesting for various reasons," said Matlock. "Each year is different -- this year is by far the most challenging because of the nor'easter."


Got a burning question? Send your feedback and contest-related questions to us at sndwebdesk@gmail.com. We'll answer as many as we can in future posts.

Judges arriving, snow falling

Overnight lake effect snow appears to have totaled another foot – and it's still coming down. N.Y. Governor Spitzer has asked President Bush to declare a federal emergency, so we've got that going for us. Which is nice.

Still, several of the 27 judges for the general competition have begun arriving. Some of the international judges – folks from France, Spain and Brazil – and the U.S. judges from faraway locations got in on Thursday. But we still have several judges from the U.K., Scandinavia and Australia who have not yet made it to Syracuse. And that does not even count the possible problems for travel inside the U.S.

So plenty to keep the competition's organizers a little nervous ... Yet judging director Marshall Matlock remains optimistic that everyone will make it in before the judging commences on Saturday morning.

"We've been here before, and we have never not been able to begin the judging!" Matlock said. "We'll do all we can to keep it all on track."

The SND International Web Desk will keep a monitor on the airport and let you know what the rest of today brings as the region gets another dose of that winter weather.

Lo res and tricky

Kenney Marlatt does his first report from the landing in Syracuse. Our old pal John Grimwade, the graphics guru who has run off from a sweet gig at Conde Nast Traveler to join the biz mag start-up Portfolio, would be proud of Kenney's quick skills. Heck, we here at the SND International Web Desk are proud, too!

How much snow?

So, after The Big Storm in Syracuse, they were starting to run out of space to pile the white stuff. If you could get here, you could get around -- slowly -- but there was a lot of extra "padding" between the roads and the sidewalks.

But, even though some parts of the state were socked with upwards of 40 inches of snow in already this week, enough to cause only the second-ever closing of Syracuse University, there is more on the way. Yes -- more still to come! Depending on which forecasts you're looking at, the area is due for yet another 6 inches or more. Consolation prize: It'll be a whole lot warmer tomorrow (23 degrees!).

If it's Syracuse, it must be snowing

This photo was taken at 7:30 p.m. EST on Wednesday and shows the scene just outside the Sheraton Syracuse University and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. As of last evening, just three facilitators had arrived for the judging, but our hope is that today brings better travel.

Judging director Marshall Matlock says: "The judging WILL go on!"

And the SND International Web Desk trusts him. The man has delivered for longer than any of us neophytes has been in the business. So we will return for more coverage soon and we can rest assured the force that is Matlock can make this all happen. Somehow.

Stay tuned: We will try on Friday afternoon to post a travel slideshow from judges and facilitators who are making their way to Syracuse, well, even as you read this. We're asking them to share their travel travails in whatever way they like (we're hoping one judge or two actually, makes us a graphic or an illustrated history of the journey), so check back in for that when (we hope) everyone has safely made it to the 28th Edition judging.

That's right: We're in Texas

Two parts of the SND International Web Desk are stuck at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, and we're not too happy about it. The esteemed Bill Gaspard and yours truly were appalled to learn several things in our many hours at DFW ...

1) You can't get a drink at the aiport before 7:30 a.m. They say it's a law. We thought this was Texas.

2) Some 70 percent of flights are said to be making it into Syracuse.
Ours? Not among them.

3) Getting hammered takes on new meaning in a snow emergency.
Or after 7:30 a.m. in Texas.

It snowed so much ...

Weather Channel On-Camera Meteorologist Jim Cantore talks with The Syracuse Crunch Hockey team mascot "Al the Gorilla" while broadcasting live on the Weather Channel in Clinton Square in downtown Syracuse. To see Clinton Square right now, click here: web cam. Photo by the Post-Standard’s Nicholas Lisi

It snowed so much...
["Just how much did it snow?!"]
... it already snowed so much in Syracuse that they closed down Syracuse University for the first time since 1993! I was there the last time and remember it being pretty much a historical event it was so rare. Lucky me, I get to see history first-hand. Twice.

The Syracuse Daily Orange (the official student paper) dishes up the details in a steamy, cocoa-like warmness...

Syracuse University cancels afternoon, evening classes
"Wednesday morning, a Syracuse University committee comprised of administrators and department chairpersons decided to cancel all classes and student activities beginning at 12:45 p.m. The last time classes were canceled due to snow was Monday, March 15, 1993, after the Syracuse area received more than 43 inches of snow that weekend, Kevin Morrow, director of SU News Services said in an e-mail... The Weather Channel predicts 6 to 10 additional inches of snow today and another 4 to 6 inches tonight, according to its Web site."

So what's the big deal? You ask...The World's Best-Designed Newspaper (or Category One) judges finished their work Tuesday and have presumeably split town, but the main group of dozens of international judges, professional assistants -- and the entire staff of The SND International Web Desk -- are all in various states of trying to get to Syracuse through a network of shut-down, delayed and cancelled flights... or pysching themselves up to do so over the course of the next 48 hours. It remains to be seen if everyone will all arrive in time to begin the judging promptly (and really early) Saturday morning. There's a mountain of newspaper pages to judge, literally.

The Syracuse Post-Standard reports that “at least a trace of snow has fallen every day in Syracuse for more than a month. … As of 9 p.m. Monday, Syracuse's Hancock Airport had received 69.7 inches of snow this season. A total of 19.6 inches has fallen this month. The normal snowfall total for Syracuse through Monday is 78.1 inches.”

So what lies ahead? More of the same, sadly: snowy and cold. (Hey, it's winter in Syracuse, right?)
Thursday: Snow showers and windy, Hi: 14 / Lo: 12
Friday: Snow showers and windy, Hi: 23 / Lo: 13
Saturday: Snow showers and windy, Hi: 26 / Lo: 22
Sunday: Snow showers and windy, Hi: 25 / Lo: 8
Monday: Snow showers and windy Hi: 15 / Lo: 15

Meanwhile, in Orlando it'll be sunny and in the 60s and 70s all weekend. They're playing friggin' baseball down there. Does anybody remember that one day that it was sort of humid and it rained a little back in Orlando at the conference? Then it was sunny again? That was nice.