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CSPA
Columbia University
Mail Code 5711
New York, NY 10027-6902
Phone: (212) 854-9400
Fax: (212) 854-9401
cspa@columbia.edu
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Contests and Critiques
Crown Award Overview
 Judges look at newspapers, magazines and yearbooks during the 2008 Crown judging.
Crown Awards are the highest recognition given by the CSPA to a student print or online medium for overall excellence. Both Gold Crown and Silver Crown Awards are given each year.
A panel of Crown Judges assembles each year at Columbia University to view all entrants, whether they are newspaper, magazines, yearbooks or online media. Judges are experienced former advisers to student media, professional journalists who understand student media or professionals such as photographers or online specialists with particular expertise needed for the judging exercise.
Judges are selected by the CSPA's Executive Director, in close consultation with the chair of the CSPAA's Committee on Honors and Prizes, who chairs the Crown Judging panel and supervises its work.
No set number of Crown Awards is required; the awards are discretionary, based on the evaluation by the Crown Judges. Decisions of these judges are final. They consider all aspects of value to the reader or viewer: content, design or presentation, coverage, photography as well as writing and editing.
The Crown Awards are distinct from other awards given by the CSPA and they have no relation to its Medalist Critiques or to its Gold Circle Awards for individual excellence. Entry in these other programs is separate from the Crown Awards although CSPA membership provides the opportunity to enter several of them.
Gold Crown Awards were first presented in 1982 and Silver Crown Awards were added in 1984.
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