Press Row

On the heels of announcing the Press Box, I’d like to roll out one of the very exciting programs that will become a permanent part of this site.

And now, introducing…the Press Row Access Awards.

This is a program aimed at tackling some of the problems I outlined in why I created the Press Box section: 1) helping smaller, lesser-known talent establish some credibility and visibility; and 2) to encourage some of these very talented online writers to really push the envelope and hone their craft.

On top of that, there’s an underlying theme to this, and the Press Box section itself—which I’ll get to later. For now, it’s time to explain what exactly the Access Awards are.

Every month during the football season (we’ll call it August through January), Press Row will select four to six sports blogs—through reader recommendations and our own selection—for nomination. The last 7 to 10 days of that month, we’ll open a poll to the readers to vote which blog should be that month’s Access Award winner.

Terms of entry:

1) The blog/web site can’t already be listed in the Press Box section of the web site. (Keep in mind that this section is still very much under construction.)

2) The blog/web site must have been in operation for at least 3 months, averaging at least 4 posts a week consistently.

3) Once you’ve won, you can’t re-enter. If you were entered for a previous month and lost, feel free to re-submit the blog/website for the following month.

So, why enter the Access Awards? (terms of victory)

1) You get listed in the Press Box section of the website, making your site eligible for user votes and more often inclusions in the Abbott Lines (visibility!)

2) Every monthly winner will receive a $25 gift card to Best Buy. Because…seriously, who can’t spend a free $25 at Best Buy?

3) The six winners will be put into our season-end awards program in February and be nominees for the 2008 Access Award for new media. This will also be up to fan vote, here at Press Row.The winner of the 2008 Access Award will receive a guest post at Press Row about the state of sports media (which hopefully by then will mean something) and a $100 gift card to Best Buy!

So, there you have it. We’ll start accepting nominations now for August’s Access Awards contest.There are still a great number of sites that should be on the Press Box section but aren’t yet, so don’t feel bed if you get rejected—we’ll let you know why.

We’ll accept nominations through e-mail, so send them over. Good luck!