Quarterly television contest is a toss up

After two quarters Billy Muhammed from WJW-TV in Cleveland is in first place with 2009 clip POY Steve Maguire from WBNS-TV in Columbus tailing by just one point on the ONPA Quarterly Television Clip Contest. Jeff Ritter from WBNS, the year-end POY for the past to years, is in third place just ten points back.

First and second quarter results are on the ONPA website

Jeff Ritter, WBNS-Tv, Columbs, Better Moove Out of the Way"
1st place Spot News - 2nd Quarter

Contest chairman David Bradford has all the winners online and can be viewed here.

Top Ten Standings
1st - Billy Muhammed, WJW-TV, Cleveland - 34pts
2nd - Steve Maguire, WBNS-TV, Columbus - 33pts
3rd - Jeff Ritter, WBNS-TV, Columbus - 24pts
4th - Scott Doelling, WBNS-TV, Columbus - 18pts
5th - Bill Reagan, WBNS-TV, Columbus - 15pts
6th - Mike Gravely, WBNS-TV, Columbus - 13pts
7th - Rich Yedlicka, WBNS-TV, Columbus - 11pts
8th - Dan Konik, WBNS-TV, Columbus - 9pts
9th - Brian Wicker, WBNS-TV, Columbus - 4pts
10th - Chris Reece, WJW-TV, Cleveland - 2pts

Staff changes

With the economy being what is is, its been quite some time since we've reported on staff changes that weren't layoff related, but several have taken place recently.

ONPA's former webmaster Apryl Pilolli is once again working with a camera in her hand moving from the copy desk to the photo department at the Dayton Daily News.

Rob Hardin, transferred from the Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum to the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette opening the way for Mike Levy to hop on-board at Gannett's paper in Bucyrus. Levy is a five-time ONPA Photographer of the Year.

The deck is also being shuffled in Ravenna at The Record Courier where photo editor Stephanie Krell opens a new chapter in her life as she walks down the aisle and away from the paper. Staff photographer Lisa Scalfaro takes over as photo editor and Timothy St. Hilaire returns to his position as staff photographer.

Dispatch dominating monthly clip contest

The ONPA Monthly Clip Contest results logjam has broken as we now have results for April and May. Positions at the top of the standings have scrambled since March, but no one new has cracked the top ten.

The contest is clearly being dominated by photographers at The Columbus Dispatch. who hold down seven of the top ten positions including leader Chris Russell, Neal C. Lauron in second place and Kyle Robertson in third place.

Might be time to gin up some interest in the monthly contest by adding points to the Staff of the Year award portion of the year-end contest for those who participate in the clip contest.

The results have been e-mailed to the winners and are posted on the ONPA website. Galleries will be posted as soon as photos are submitted.

Point Standings through May

1st - Chris Russell, The Columbus Dispatch - 502

2nd - Neal C. Lauron, The Columbus Dispatch - 392

3rd - Kyle Robertson, The Columbus Dispatch - 372

4th - Lisa Dejong, The Plain Dealer - 332

5th - Eric Albrecht, The Columbus Dispatch - 302

Marshall Gorby, Springfield News-Sun - 302

7th - Bill Lackey, Springfield News-Sun - 282

Jonathan Quilter, The Columbus Dispatch - 282

9th - Fred Squillante, The Columbus Dispatch - 262

10th - Tom Dodge, The Columbus Dispatch - 172