#SJA2014 awards' special offer for regional press - Sports Journalists' Association

The SJA has announced some special measures to try to encourage more sports writers on regional and local newspapers to enter the BT Sport-sponsored British Sports Journalism Awards.

Entries for the 2014 awards are now open. Among a number of new categories and other innovations is the facility for online submission of entries and a 20 per cent cut in entry fees. For SJA members, entry fees have been reduced by 40 per cent, as an additional benefit of membership.

Journalists working on the sports desks of regional and local newspapers and their websites are able to enter any of 14 sports writing categories in the SJA British Sports Journalism Awards, in addition to the Regional Sports Writer category which has been won for the past three years by Cumbrian Newspapers’ Jon Colman.

This year for the first time, the short-listed entrants in the Regional category will each receive a free ticket to attend the awards presentation dinner in London next March to recognise their achievement on a national stage.

“We are always looking at ways to better reach out to our members and colleagues working on regional and local newspapers,” said Andy Elliott, the former sports editor at PA Sport and a member of the SJA committee.

“These are tough times in our industry, especially at local level. With the important help of our sponsors, BT Sport, we hope that by reducing our awards entry fees and by offering to pay for the tickets to our March awards dinner for the short-listed entrants in our Regional Sports Writer category, we can encourage more of our colleagues to take part in what is well-established as the country’s leading specialist journalism awards.

“And for anyone who hasn’t entered before, they need to remember that it does not matter whether their work was published in the paper or online, all our categories are open to all.”