Columbia Scholastic Press Association

What does "Membership" in CSPA mean?

Medalist Critiques offer a detailed written analysis of your print or digital publication, with recommendations for improvements. The results are returned with one of three ratings: Gold Medalist, Silver Medalist or Bronze Medalist. 

Crown Awards recognize overall excellence in either print or digital student publications, chosen by a panel of judges working as a team. Entries are compared against one another with similar age and experience levels such as high school yearbooks against other high school yearbooks, and so forth. There are NO written results returned to individual publications. A DVD is prepared and mailed to all members, depicting selected pages from the winners with commentary from the judges explaining their choices. The DVD is included for all CSPA members, regardless of type of membership.

Gold Circle Awards recognize individual achievement by students from any CSPA member in many categories. Each CSPA member can submit as many as 30 individual entries as part of their membership. Additional entries can be submitted at a special member rate. Certificates are awarded to First, Second or Third Place and up to three additional Certificates of Merit are given for honorable mention in each category. Gold Circle Award entries require separate submission by June 17th (print news and magazine entries) or by November 1st (all yearbook and digital entries). 

Regular Membership provides entry for all three competitions. Associate Members compete in Crown Awards and Gold Circle Award, while Basic Members only participate in Gold Circle Awards. Fees are adjusted for each membership.

• Regular Membership: includes detailed critique, Crown judging, 30 free Gold Circle entries, Special Edition Crown Awards DVD. [Hybrid $259, Digital $209, Print $219]

• Associate Membership: includes Crown judging, 30 free Gold Circle entries, Special Edition Crown Awards DVD. NO critique included. [$179]

• Basic Membership: includes 30 free Gold Circle entries, Special Edition Crown Awards DVD. NO critique, NO Crown Awards entry included. [$159]
  
  HYBRID – print publication that provides live coverage via website between print editions. Can include expanded content for stories already covered in print. Could also include updates or completely new coverage via website.
  
  DIGITAL – Online news reporting only; no print component.  If a print edition co-exists with the digital news site, then it’s a hybrid publication.
  
  PRINT - News reporting in print only; no digital (online) component.  If a digital edition co-exists with the print component, then it’s a hybrid publication.
  

Deadlines

June 17, 2013
Regular Membership or Basic Membership for print newspapers, digital media, hybrid news media & all magazines.

October 15, 2013
Regular Memberships or Basic Memberships for yearbooks, all Associate Memberships.

Who's eligible?

• One membership per print publication or digital media. (Note to college newspapers: Fall and spring semester are considered ONE membership.)
• Memberships for student media are offered for print publications or digital media.
  
• CSPA accepts newspapers, yearbooks, magazines and digital media edited and produced by students in middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities for membership.
• Schools and colleges may be public, private or church-affiliated institutions located in the United States, Canada, or overseas schools following an American plan of education.
  
• All CSPA memberships run from July 1 through June 30 of the following year. Memberships are for one year only and must be renewed.
  
• A note about digital (online) sites: To be critiqued/evaluated as an digital publication and/or site, your website must include material adding web features. Sites offering only PDFs of the existing print publications do not qualify for digital or hybrid news site critique consideration.

How to join

Download our new, fillable PDF Membership Form, available on this page.

You can complete the form on your screen using Adobe's free Reader software and return the form to CSPA via e-mail. Once you've completed the form, you can submit the data using Reader's built-in "Submit form" function OR by saving the form (with a new filename) and sending the file as an attachment to cspa-critiques@columbia.edu.

We suggest you print two copies of your completed form: one for your records and one to send with your physical entries and/or payment.

CSPA Membership

Membership Overview

Membership Types Available

Professional Membership

What to submit

Membership FAQ

Download forms

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