Call for proposals focusing on 'Strengthening Community News' from Intl. Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors

The International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors is accepting proposals for its 2024 ISWNE/Huck Boyd Competition focused on “Strengthening Community News.” Proposals should provide "insight and guidance on general issues and/or everyday problems that confront community newspapers and their newsrooms, with particular reference to weekly general-interest publications with circulations under 10,000." Proposal submissions are due via email on Nov. 2. 

This competition builds on the Huck Boyd Center’s former “Newspapers and Community-Building Symposium,” co-sponsored for 20 years by the National Newspaper Association and its foundation. According to information from ISWNE and the Huck Boyd Center, "the competition’s ultimate goal is to engage academicians and community newspaper journalists in productive conversations about community journalism.”

ISWNE hotline access is available for society members and non-members. Non-members may request temporary access by contacting Executive Director Chad Stebbins at stebbins-c@mssu.edu. Hotline discussions feature topics of interest to weekly newsrooms and could be used to focus potential proposals.

Possible topics "could include legal, political, or ethical issues; alternative print/digital integration models; or surveys to determine successful techniques for staff recruitment/retention, for boosting online presence, or to elicit best practices for special editions," according to the ISWNE and Huck Boyd Center information. 

One paper will be selected by a panel of working and retired community journalists for presentation at the 2024 ISWNE conference scheduled for June or July 2024 in Toronto, Canada.  ISWNE and the ISWNE Foundation will provide the author with a complementary conference registration and a partial subsidy for travel.