Frank Premack
Public Affairs Journalism Award

Announcing the 30th annual Frank Premack Public Affairs Journalism Award Competition The Premack Awards recognize excellence in public affairs reporting and honors Minnesota newspaper journalists covering Minnesota people and institutions, as judged by Minnesotans

Download the Premack Entry Form (pdf format)

Celebrating 30 years of Excellence in Public Affairs Journalism

Deadline for entries is February 1, 2007

Open to all Minnesota Newspaper Journalists
The Frank Premack Public Affairs Journalism Award competition is one of the state’s most coveted and celebrated journalism honors. Started after the death in 1975 of Frank Premack, a reporter and editor at the Minneapolis Tribune, the competition seeks entries from Minnesota newspapers doing public affairs journalism in their community or region. The competition includes awards for larger and smaller daily newspapers, one category for public affairs reporting published in weekly, biweekly and neighborhood newspapers and a category for opinion writing in any eligible newspaper.

Four Winners of $500
The reporters or writers submitting the winning entries in each of the four categories will receive a $500 check, while each of the winning newspapers will receive a special citation honoring the publication’s high achievement in public affairs reporting or opinion writing. The entries are considered by a panel of citizen judges representing Minnesota community and public life from the arts, education, law, politics, journalism, and the general public.

Award Categories

• Twin Cities metropolitan daily newspapers
  (Star Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press)
• All other Minnesota daily general circulation newspapers, including the Fargo Forum, Grand Forks Herald, Sioux Falls Argus Leader and the major news wire services.
• Minnesota weekly, biweekly and neighborhood newspapers, not including shoppers or specialty publications.
• OPINION WRITING (all papers judged in one category): Staff-produced editorials, signed or unsigned, and staff commentaries appearing on the editorial or op-ed pages of any general circulation newspaper serving Minnesota readers. Submissions must be limited to one editory/commentary per entry. A series of editorials/commentaires will NOT be accepted.

Deadline for Entries
Entries must be postmarked or submitted via e-mail no later than February 1, 2007 and addressed to:
Frank Premack Award Competition
c/o Minnesota Journalism Center
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
111 Murphy Hall, 206 Church Street S.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0418
premack@umn.edu

Awards Presentation
In recognition of the 30 years of this illustrious competition, a new format for the presentation of the awards has been designed to inspire and encourage good public affairs journalism. The new program will feature a public Premack Forum, where award winners will discuss their winning pieces and engage the audience in a discussion of good journalistic practices. The Premack Forum will take place on Monday, April 23rd at Coffman Memorial Union at the University of Minnesota.

Rules of Competition
The subject of the material submitted must be in the broad context of Minnesota state or local public affairs. Entries may be single articles, a series of related articles on public affairs, or collections of articles on a single public affairs subject for all categories except Opinion Writing. Opinion Writing submissions must be single pieces.We retain the right to post, distribute and display winning entries.

Only work appearing in the print version of a qualifying newspaper during the 2006 calendar year may be entered, although online and multimedia supplements to the print submission may be referred to in the nominating letter. A nominating letter explaining the context and rationale behind the submission and the official entry form must accompany all entries. Only bylined reporters and editors listed on the entry form will be recognized. Late additions will NOT be accepted.

Entries must be submitted in one the following formats:

Hard copy entries: Nine (9) full sets of complete readable copies of all pages in order, sized between 8 1/2 x 11 to 11 x 17. Each copy must include the entry form and nominating letter. Printouts of entries from an electronic archive will not be accepted.

Electronic entries: Electronic entries may be submitted in PDF format via file transfer protocol (FTP), accompanied by the electronic entry form and nominating letter. All electronic entries must be submitted in PDF format and must reflect the format of the article as it appeared in the printed newspaper. PDFs of websites or an electronic archive will not be accepted. Further instructions and guidelines for submitting electronic entries will be available soon.

Further Information
Additional information on the Frank Premack Award Competition can be obtained by contacting the Minnesota Journalism Center at (612) 626-1723 or mnjrnctr@umn.edu.

Download the Premack Entry Form (pdf format)

Frank Premack, 1933-1975

It took Frank Premack a while to discover newspapering. He emigrated from his South Dakota boyhood home as an early adolescent, bright, curious and cantankerous. First stop was the University of Chicago, where, by his own admission, he majored in poker and left under a cloud. Next stop was the University of Minnesota, where his studies in architecture left him unsatisfied.

Finally, he managed to land a job as a copy editor on the Minneapolis Tribune in January 1958. Almost immediately, he began lobbying for assignment as a reporter. Persistence was rewarded, and in February 1960 he was transferred, having worn down those who objected that he had no experience. Premack knew he had found his life’s calling. He quickly became known for his aggressive pursuit of the news. Dishonesty, sham and pretense were his targets wherever his reporting led him. Curious and cantankerous as always, he demanded to know why things were as they were. Fascinated by politics and government, he excelled at such reporting, earning the respect of those he covered, the reading public and his colleagues. Later, as city editor and assistant managing editor of the Tribune, Premack carried the same high ideals into the editing process. His motivational techniques often were direct and memorable, as when, on a dull Friday afternoon, he might climb onto his desk, crack a bull whip over the heads of a staff dreaming about the weekend ahead, declare there was no news to be found while sitting at their desks and order them into the streets to find it. On April 7, 1975, while a member of the Tribune’s Special Reporting Group, Frank Premack died of a heart attack. He was 42.